RECOLLECTIONS 

OF 

DAVID  S 


1OTK5TS  HISTORICAL  SURVETC 


0  P  f  5" 


n  . 


(f  «iir  /  A^T 


DAVID  SMITH 


773 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Page 
FAMILY  RECORD  9 

CHAPTER  II. 
FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA. 

Childhood  in  Scotland — His  father  decides  to  come  to 
America — Preparation — Voyage — New  York  to  Chicago....  10 

CHAPTER  III. 
MAKING  A  NEW  HOME. 

Six  weeks'  sojourn  at  Ottawa,  Illinois — The  new  home — John 
dies — House  burns — Other  misfortunes  17 

CHAPTER  IV. 
EARLY  FARM  WORK. 

Brother  Robert  takes  the  lead — Uncle  John  buys  sheep — 
Wolves — Breaking  prairie  and  trying  to  raise  poultry — Rail 
fences  and  sod  fences — Brother  Robert  makes  a  sulky  plow — 
Trade  their  ox  team  for  horses — Pay  $1.25  an  acre  for  land — 
Raise  potatoes,  wheat  and  corn — First  farm  implements 23 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  MOTHER  DIES— EARLY  SCHOOL  DAYS— AGUE 31 

CHAPTER  VI. 
FARM  IMPLEMENTS. 

Prairie  fires — Uncle  John  Colville — Home  made  plows  and 
corn  cultivators — Planting  corn — Evolution  of  the  corn 
planter — Uncle  John's  farm  and  farming — Loss  from  prai- 
rie fires — Uncle  John  an  indifferent  financier — he  worked 
cheap — extended  credit  too  liberally — loss  by  theft — gen- 
erously sold  for  less  than  a  rising  market  in  war  times  jus- 
tified— generous  to  a  fault,  and  died  poor 34 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS  INCIDENT  TO  PIONEER  LIFE. 
David  finishes  his  schooling  in  schoolhouse  he  helped  to 
build — Alex  dies  in  the  army — Robert  takes  the  lead  in  farm 
work — David  builds  an  addition  to  the  dwelling  house.  How 
Alex  escaped  injury  by  a  rolling  log — Runaways — Falling 
timber — Amusing  accident  befalls  Uncle  John — Adrift  in  a 
wagon  while  trying  to  cross  the  river  at  Milford — Lose  the 
pole  while  poling  a  scow  across  ?bove  the  dam  on  the 


Page 

return  trip — Careless  shooting  at  a  wolf  hunt — Indian  Chief 
Shabona — Searching  strayed  stock — Lightning  strikes  the 
Nettleton  home  and  renders  Nathan  unconscious — Great 
shock  to  Mrs.  Nettleton — Loss  of  live  stock  by  lightning — 
Cradles,  reapers,  mowing  machines  and  headers — various 
kinds  of  hay  rakes 39 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
MORE  ABOUT  PRAIRIE  FIRES  AND  BAD  ROADS. 

Hopps  accidentally  burns  his  haystack — Uncle  John's  blind 
mare  thinks  she  is  in  the  tread  mill  when  she  strikes  the 
plank  road 55 

CHAPTER    IX. 

MARKETING  THE  PRODUCE  IN  CHICAGO— SAUGANASH 
TAVERN  BURNS— ASSESSING  WILLOW  CREEK  TOWN- 
SHIP. 

Hauled  potatoes  by  team  to  Chicago. and  peddled  them  out 
for  thirty  cents  per  bushel — Slough  grass  and  water  from 
the  lake  to  Desplaines  river — Worked  on  the  fire  engines 
and  pumps  when  the  Sauganash  Tavern  burned — Two  cases 
wherein  suspicion  fell  on  innocent  parties — Dirt  roads  at 
their  worst 59 

CHAPTER  X. 

DRAINAGE— HOG    CHOLERA— DEHORNING   THE    CATTLE. 
Deep  sloughs  entrap  live  stock — Dehorning  cattle  a  merciful 
act — Caution  required  in  laying  tile  drains 68 

CHAPTER  XI. 
WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS. 

Depredation  by  wolves — Many  killed — Killing  deer,  five  with 
one  shot — Geese,  ducks  and  cranes  as  well  as  prairie  chickens, 
and  quail,  plentiful — Coons  valuable — Otters  also  found  here 
— Evidences  that  buffalo  used  to  be  here 77 

CHAPTER  XII. 
SOCIAL   LIFE   OF   THE   PIONEERS. 

Preaching  seventy-five  years  ago — The  first  school — Picking 
up  live  snakes 83 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

"YANKEE     BILL"— THE     OLD    TIME     PEDDLER— INLET 
SWAMP— A  HUNT  FOR  GOOSE  AND  DUCK  EGGS 89 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
FATHER  AND  MOTHER. 

A  description  from  memory  after  the  lapse  of  seventy-five 
years 92 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page  No. 
The  Old  .Inn  at  Machrihanish  (The  Salt  Pans  just  below  Upper 

Lassett — The  Home  of  the  Smiths) 10 

Upper  Lassett,  Home  of  the  Smiths  in  1836  (Birthplace  of  David 

Smith)  12 

Upper  Tierfergus,  Home  of  the  Smiths  in  1822  (Birthplace  of 

Robert  Smith) 14 

Smith's  Grove,  Near  David  Smith's  Residence 19 

Martha  (Smith)  Hopps,  the  first  bride  in  Lee  County 25 

Dwelling  House  of  David  Smith 26 

Tenant     House     on     David     Smith's     Farm     (Home     of     Walter 

Barringer)   28 

John  Colville 36 

Alexander    Smith 40 

Jane  (Smith)   Nettleton 42 

Shabona    46 

First  Frame  House  Built  at  Smith's  Grove — Built  by  Mr.  Nettle- 
ton  against  a  log  house  that  was  torn  down  before  this  picture 

was  taken   49 

Robert  Smith  (from  a  photo  taken  in  1856) 60 

Sauganash  Tavern 62 

David  Smith  at  70  Years  of  Age 65 

David  Smith  at  50  Years  of  Age 70 

David  Smith  Putting  Oats  in  His  Granary  While  Threshing  3,000 

Bushels  in  One  Day 73 

David  Smith..,  94 


Introduction 

When  I  wrote  the  following  pages  of  this  little  booklet,  I  did 
not  expect  to  have  them  published ;  but  when  I  allowed  it  to  be 
published  in  the  Dixon  Weekly  Citizen,  so  many  liked  it  and 
wished  me  to  get  it  published  in  booklet  or  pamphlet  form  that  I 
have  concluded  to  do  so,  and  also  to  have  the  pictures  of  all  my 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  also  John  Colville's  and  my  own  and  a 
few  other  pictures  put  in  the  booklet.  I  think  that  it  will  then 
be  a  nice  little  present  to  give  to  many  of  my  relatives  and  other 
friends.  I  intend  to  order  a  lot  of  them  published  and  bound  in 
a  neat  booklet  to  give  to  many  of  my  relatives  while  the  supply 
lasts,  as  I  think  that  will  be  a  nicer  way  of  leaving  something  for 
my  friends  to  remember  me  by  than  by  putting  up  a  tombstone 
for  myself  as  some  of  such  men  asked  me  to  do  lately,  as  I  am 
eighty-three  years  old. 

DAVID  SMITH. 

Paw  Paw,  111.,  February  4,  1915. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Family  Record 

Martha  Smith  was  born  6th  February  and  baptized  9th  Feb- 
ruary, 1820,  and  died  July,  1862. 

Robert  Smith  was  born  25th  June,  1822,  and  baptized  July 
4,  1822,  and  died  September  22,  1905. 

David  Smith  was  born  nth  of  January  and  baptized  i6th  of 
January,  1825,  and  died  26th  of  January,  1825. 

Jean  Smith  was  born  23d  of  June,  and  baptized  Qth  of  July, 
1826,  and  died  January  3,  1830. 

John  and  David  Smith,  born  6th  of  January  and  baptized  the 
8th,  1829.  David  died  :6th  of  January,  1829.  John  died  August, 

1837- 

David  Smith  born  i6th  of  July,  1831,  and  baptized  August 
2,  1831.  Now  living  on  old  homestead  in  Willow  Creek,  where 
he  has  lived  continuously  for  over  seventy  years. 

Jean  or  Jane  born  2ist  of  September  ;  baptized  October,  1833, 
and  died  June  5,  1894. 

Alexander  Smith  born  2Oth  of  December,  1835 ;  baptized 
3Oth  December.  1835,  and  died  January  3,  1836. 

Their  mother  died  October  i,  1840,  aged  43  years. 

Alexander  C.  Smith,  born  at  Ottawa,  111.;  baptized  there 
July,  1837,  and  died  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  Tenn.,  April  26,  1862. 

The  foregoing  accounts  of  births  and  deaths  were  copied 
from  my  father's  Bible,  on  the  9th  of  February,  A.  D.  1913. 
Which  Bible  he  had  told  me  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  a 
small  part  at  a  time  and  that  he  afterwards  got  it  bound  but  that 
a  little  of  it  had  been  lost  before  getting  it  bound. 

Their  father  born  January  19,  1785,  and  died  August  21, 
1860.  An  uncle,  John  Colville,  was  born  November  12,  1812,  and 
died  October  22,  1893.  His  wife  died  April  18,  1881,  aged  61 
years,  2  months,  17  days. 


CHAPTER    II. 

From  Scotland  to  America 

As  I  have  been  asked  to  write  some  of  my  early  recollections 
of  Scotland  and  trip  to  this  country  and  early  settlement  in  Illi- 
nois, I  begin  with  my  childhood  in  Scotland. 

I  remember  seeing  some  of  my  father's  hired  men  hauling 
seaweed  to  fertilize  the  land  with.  I  think  that  they  used  only 
one  horse  and  cart  to  each  man  and  I  think  that  men  walked  and 
led  the  horses  when  coming  back  with  loads.  I  was  told  that  it 


THE  OLD  INN  AT  MACHRIHANISH   BAY   (THE   SALT   PANS  JUST 
BELOW  UPPER  LASSETT— THE  HOME  OF  THE  SMITHS). 

was  about  five  miles  to  the  seashore  where  they  got  the  seaweed 
to  which  point  it  had  drifted  out  with  the  tides  and  I  remember 
seeing  some  boys  looking  for  large  stalks  of  the  seaweed  that 
they  liked  to  eat  like  a  turnip.  I  think  that  it  had  a  slight  salt 
taste.  We  had  no  wagons  or  four-wheeled  carriages  on  the  farm 
in  those  days.  I  remember  going  to  church  with  father  and 
mother  in  a  two  wheeled  carriage  to  Campbeltown  and  we  gen- 

10 


FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA.  11 

erally  visited  some  of  our  relatives  while  in  that  place.  I  remem- 
ber that  my  oldest  sister  stayed  in  Campbeltown  a  while.  I  think 
she  was  learning  dressmaking.  Sometimes  she  walked  home 
although  it  was  five  miles,  or  at  least  part  way  as  I  used  to  run 
to  meet  her  when  I  saw  her  coming.  Sometimes  she  brought  me 
a  toy  or  something  to  play  with.  And  I  remember  she  took  me 
walking,  I  think  among  the  hills  where  our  sheep  used  to  be  pas- 
tured. On  one  occasion  it  thundered  and  I  asked  her  what  that 
noise  was,  as  I  had  not  remembered  of  hearing  such  noise  before. 
I  suppose  it  was  not  very  common  there  and  I  was  trying  to 
imagine  what  was  causing  the  noise.  I  imagined  people  rolling 
stones  down  rocky  steep  hills  and  when  told  that  it  was  thunder 
I  had  no  better  idea  of  the  cause  and  when  told  that  God  made  it 
rain  I  wondered  how  He  caused  it  to  spread  so  nicely.  Did  He 
have  the  angels  carry  the  water  to  the  skies  and  pour  it  through 
sieves  or  colanders  to  spread  it  so  nicely  ?  And  I  remember,  too, 
asking  an  older  boy  what  God  made  the  world  out  of,  and  he 
answered  that  God  just  spit  and  made  the  world  out  of  that. 
Then  I  wondered  if  spit  would  grow  like  that :  if  my  spit  would 
grow  if  I  gave  it  a  good  chance,  so  I  tried  it  in  a  dish  of  milk 
that  was  left  out.  To  show  the  different  thought  of  children  I 
will  mention  the  idea  of  another  boy  when  seeing  the  stars  begin 
to  shine.  He  remarked  that  Mrs.  God  was  lighting  the  candles. 
I  remember  while  in  Scotland  that  all  of  my  brothers  and  sisters 
and  myself  were  sick  with  scarlet  fever  and  that  some  of  our 
cousins  came  from  Campbeltown  to  see  us  and  help  take  care 
of  us  and  I  saw  the  doctor  bleed  sister  Martha  and  hold  a  dish 
to  catch  the  blood.  As  her  hair  was  coming  out  badly,  father 
had  shaved  her  head  and  I  think  that  her  hair  grew  coarser  and 
heavier  than  it  was  before,  and  I  remember  that  mother  had  a. 
sore  foot  and  that  they  got  leeches  and  applied  to  the  sore  or 
bruises.  And  I  used  to  admire  the  little  spotted  fish  in  a  brook 
or  glen  near  my  birth  place  in  Scotland.  There  were  few  trees 
close  to  the  brook  near  the  house  and  I  think  no  fruits  or  orna- 
mental trees  except  the  hedge  grew  there.  I  think  I  never  saw 
apples  or  fruit  growing  on  trees  in  Scotland.  As  most  of  the 
farms  were  rented  near  our  home  I  suppose  that  fruit  trees  were 
scarce  but  I  was  told  that  some  did  raise  apples  and  that  it  was 
a  great  country  to  raise  fine  large  gooseberries ;  but  I  think  we 


12 


FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA. 


did  not  raise  any  except  the  blueberries  and  a  few  others  that 
grew  wild  or  native  on  the  farm. 

Father  told  years  before  leaving  Scotland  that  he  had  been 
getting-  poorer  each  year  for  a  number  of  years  so  he  resolved 
to  sell  out  and  come  to  America,  while  he  had  a  little  to  come 
with.  Accordingly  he  sold  out  stock  and  things  he  did  not  want 
to  bring  here  but  he  made  the  mistake  of  taking  a  very  heavy 
iron  plow  with  cast  mold  board  that  he  thought  would  be  good 
to  plow  new  tough  land  with  ;  but  it  was  so  heavy  and  run  so 
hard  that  he  soon  sold  it  for  old  iron  after  taking  it  more  than 
four  thousand  miles.  But  father's  selling  out  did  not  stop  his 


„  111,1- 


HOME   OF   THE   SMITHS   IN   1836    (BIRTHPLACE   OF 
DAVID    SMITH). 


bad  luck  when  ne  sold  out  in  Scotland.  It  seemed  to  continue 
till  he  lost  about  all  that  he  left  Scotland  with  and  he  seemed  to 
rejoice  when  the  assessor  assessed  our  property  in  this  country 
as  high  as  $1,500,  which  he  had  to  leave  Scotland  with.  Before 
we  left  the  farm  the  next  renter  moved  into  other  buildings  on 
that  place  and  began  stealing  father's  grain  and  feeding  it  to  his 
stock  before  it  was  threshed  so  father  got  two  men  to  watch  to 
find  out  who  was  taking  the  grain  and  they  caught  the  new  renter, 
a  Mr.  Walker,  stealing  and  father  had  him  arrested ;  but  it  was 
an  expensive  job  for  father,  as  Walker  got  false  witnesses  to 
testify  that  they  overheard  father  bribing  his  hired  men  to  tell 


FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA.  13 

that  they  caught  Walker  stealing;  so  father  had  to  hire  a  lawyer 
to  defend  himself  against  the  charge  of  bribing  his  men  to  testify 
against  Walker  and  the  lawyers  found  out  that  Walker's  false 
witnesses  were  in  another  part  of  Scotland  at  that  time,  but  I 
never  heard  what  was  done  with  the  false  witnesses.  I  did  hear 
that  Walker  died  in  prison  and  that  that  farm  was  not  worked 
that  year,  1837.  I  remember  seeing  the  officer  taking  Walker  to 
prison  and  they  walked  at  least  as  far  as  we  could  see- them.  He 
carried  a  big  stick  as  pistols  were  not  commonly  carried  there  at 
that  time  at  least.  I  think  that  they  walked  to  Campbeltown,  5 
miles.  I  remember  of  my  folks  drying  boxes  and  barrels  to  pack 
bedding,  clothing,  etc.,  in,  and  how  brother  John  and  I  were 
rolling  each  other  in  one  of  the  barrels  and  while  I  was  in  the 
barrel  he  pushed  it  and  got  it  going  so  fast  down  hill  that  I 
crawled  out  and  tried  to  stop  it  but  could  not  so  it  run  over  the 
bank  into  the  brook  or  glen  and  broke  in  pieces  on  stones  in  the 
glen.  And  I  remember  going  with  brother  John  to  Drumlemon 
a  very  small  village  or  place,  to  get  a  man  to  watch  the  clothing 
that  they  intended  to  leave  out  all  night  to  get  thoroughly  dried 
before  packing  them  to  ship  to  this  country.  Well  do  I  remember 
while  in  Campbeltown  before  starting,  that  an  uncle  there,  a 
brother  of  mother's,  gave  brother  Robert  a  watch  and  John  and 
me  a  pocket  knife  each.  We  had  to  go  to  Greennook  I  think  in 
a  small  steamboat  to  sail  on  a  sailing  vessel  that  was  to  leave 
there  for  New  York  in  a  few  days.  I  remember  very  well  while 
walking  on  a  plank  going  into  the  ship  that  John  Colville  dropped 
a  boot  that  he  had  a  number  of  things  packed  in  and  was  carry- 
ing in  his  hand  or  arm  and  it  sank  and  I  saw  men  trying  to  get 
it  with  a  hook  on  a  long  pole  but  uncle  John  never  got  it,  and 
my  folks  forgot  something  that  they  had  where  they  boarded 
while  waiting  for  the  ship  to  start,  and  they  sent  Robert  back  for 
it  and  the  ship  started  and  I  was  afraid  that  he  could  not  get  on 
the  ship  but  some  man  brought  him  in  a  skiff.  My  father  said 
that  it  was  an  American  ship  but  I  do  not  remember  the  name  of 
the  ship.  I  think  it  was  Adriatic  or  something  like  that.  They 
said  it  took  us  six  weeks  to  get  to  New  York  and  we  lived  mostly 
on  oat  meal  and  molasses.  I  think  they  only  had  one  fire  on  the 
ship  to  cook  for  all  the  passengers  and  crew  so  that  we  could  not 
cook  anything  long.  I  remember  seeing  a  large  fish  come  to  the 


14 


FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA. 


top  of  the  water  with  a  kind  of  a  snort.  Some  said  that  it  was 
a  porpoise  and  I  think  it  would  weigh  several  hundred  pounds. 
At  another  time  I  saw  the  water  fairly  covered  with  small  or 
medium  sized  fish  but  saw  none  caught  on  the  trip.  I  remember 
seeing  the  sailors  cleaning  the  ship  before  getting  into  New  York 
and  also  seeing  a  pilot  and  a  doctor  come  on  the  ship  and  when 
taking  our  goods  off,  father  had  them  piled  high  on  a  dray  and 
got  on  top  to  hold  the  boxes  from  falling.  But  the  driver  cracked 
the  whip  and  started  so  suddenly  that  it  jerked  father  off  and 
bruised  his  hip  so  badly  that  we  had  to  stay  in  New  York  ten 


UPPI 


OF  THE   SMITHS   IN    1822    (BIRTHPLACE 
,OF  ROBERT   SMITH). 


days  to  have  him  doctored  till  he  was  well  enough  to  travel  again, 
and  I  remember  meeting  one  of  the  sailors  that  was  on  the  ship 
that  brought  us  over  and  he  recognized  me  and  spoke  to  me.  I 
suppose  he  was  a  little  surprised  to  know  that  we  had  to  stay  in 
New  York  so  long.  And  I  remember  going  to  church  with  sister 
Martha  one  Sunday  while  in  New  York.  Next  I  think  that  we 
went  to  Albany  by  steamboat  and  from  there  to  Buffalo  in  a  small 
canal  boat.  I  remember  that  I  came  near  falling  into  the  canal 
while  stopping,  I  think,  to  come  through  a  lock.  I  saw  an  egg  up 
in  the  water  and  reached  to  get  it  but  got  so  far  out  that  I  had 
to  put  my  hands  on  another  boat  that  was  within  reach  but  too 
far  so  that  I  could  not  push  myself  back  into  our  boat,  but  some 


FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA.  15 

one  saw  me  and  pulled  me  back.  And  I  remember  that  brother 
Robert  said  that  he  lost  the  watch  that  uncle  gave  him  as  it  slipped 
out  of  his  pocket  into  the  canal. 

Father  said  that  when  he  left  Scotland  he  intended  to  move 
to  Michigan  but  hearing  of  the  Illinois  prairies  he  thought  it 
would  be  much  easier  making  a  farm  in  Illinois  so  he  took  pas- 
sage on,  I  think,  a  steamboat  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago,  but  I  do 
not  remember  how  long  we  were  on  any  of  our  trips  from  New 
York  but  it  was  slow  compared  with  railroad  time  now.  I  had 
never  seen  a  railroad  till  they  built  a  short  one  about  ten  miles 
across  the  flats  west  of  Chicago,  ten  or  twelve  years  later.  But 
we  did  get  in  sight  of  some  cars  moving  near  New  York  when 
we  were  starting  for  Albany.  I  remember  asking  mother  what 
the  cars  were.  The  railroad  across  the  flats  west  of  Chicago  was 
first  made  with  flat  bars  of  iron  spiked  on  timber  that  lay  par- 
allel with  the  road  but  the  weight  of  the  locomotives  kept  pulling 
the  spikes  loose  at  the  ends  of  the  bars  and  bending  the  bars  up 
at  the  end  so  they  soon  replaced  them  with  other  rails  and  ex- 
tended the  railroads  west,  both  the  C.,  B.  &  Q.  and  the  C.  &  N 
W.,  or  I  think  it  was  first  called  the  Chicago  and  Fulton.  I  think- 
that  the  C.,  B.  &  Q.  first  used  what  was  called  double  T  rails  that 
were  like  two  half  rails  laid  side  by  side  so  that  the  end  of  one 
half  would  meet  another  about  the  middle  of  the  other  half  which 
made  a  nice  smooth  track  but  did  not  have  the  strength  or  lasting 
qualities  of  the  common  T  rail.  But  I  must  go  back  to  our  steam- 
boat trip  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago.  I  remember  being  delayed  a 
while  by  the  boat  running  on  a  sandbar  so  that  they  had  to  take 
part  of  the  load  out  to  a  near  point  of  land  and  then  rock  the 
boat  by  having  us  run  back  and  forth  from  one  side  of  the  boat 
to  the  other.  I  remember  running  with  the  others  although  only 
six  years  old  then  but  I  remember  also  that  the  mosquitoes  were 
the  worst  I  had  ever  seen.  I  saw  a  number  of  young  men  bath- 
ing in  the  lake  while  waiting  in  their  efforts  to  get  away  from 
the  mosquitoes.  As  I  could  not  swim  I  had  to  stay  in  the  boat  and 
fight  the  mosquitoes  till  I  got  tired  or  nearly  exhausted  and  began 
to  cry  when  my  mother  had  me  lie  down  and  put  something  over 
me  till  I  could  rest.  I  remember,  too,  when  we  landed  in  Chicago 
that  father  gave  us  a  dinner  at  which  I  saw  the  first  cucumber 
pickles  and  wondered  what  they  were.  As  they  were  split  length- 


16  FROM  SCOTLAND  TO  AMERICA. 

wise  I  thought  the  seeds  looked  a  little  like  fish  bones.  I  was 
fond  of  fish  but  did  not  like  that  kind.  Then  father  hired  two 
men  with  teams  and  wagons  to  move  us  and  our  goods  to  Ottawa. 
I  think  that  father  knew  the  Armours  that  were  in  Ottawa  at 
that  time  as  they  were  from  Campbeltown.  One  of  them,  George 
Armour,  I  think,  bought  grain  both  in  Ottawa  and  Chicago  after 
the  canal  was  finished  between  those  places  and  I  remember  meet- 
ing George  Armour  in  Chicago  more  than  twenty-five  years  after 
we  first  came  to  Ottawa.  He  had  two  brothers  in  Ottawa  when 
we  first  came  there  but  I  think  that  neither  of  them  ventured  into 
as  large  business  as  George  did. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Making  a  New  Home 

When  we  arrived  in  Ottawa  it  must  have  been  about  the  last 
of  June  or  first  of  July  as  father  wrote  that  brother  Alexander 
was  born  there  in  July  and  that  brother  John  died  here  in 
August  but  did  not  write  the  day  of  either  month  and  he  said 
that  we  were  in  Ottawa  about  six  weeks,  while  he  was  buying 
the  claim  to  this  grove  and  getting  a  log  house  built  on  this  farm. 
He  had  rented  a  log  house  in  Ottawa ;  it  stood  on  the  east  bank  of 
Fox  river  very  near  where  it  runs  into  the  Illinois  river  and  it  had 
a  rail  fence  around  it  or  at  least  part  way  around  the  house  where 
our  family  stayed  till  they  had  the  house  nearly  finished  that  they 
were  building  about  two  rods  east  of  my  present  dwelling  house. 
I  think  Uncle  John  was  with  father  at  least  part  of  the  time  while 
building  the  house  as  he  was  handy  with  carpenter  tools  and  he 
always  lived  with  us  after  we  left  Scotland  till  my  mother  died. 
But  father  had  two  men  from  Pawpaw  building  it  when  we  all 
moved  here  and  father  brought  some  lumber  from  Ottawa  for 
floors  and  stood  part  of  it  against  the  end  of  the  log  house  to 
sleep  under  till  we  could  get  into  the  house.  Sister  Martha  was 
sick  while  living  there  and  one  day  a  rattlesnake  crawled  along 
the  log  under  the  head  of  her  bed  and  I  saw  her  get  out  of  bed ; 
father  killed  the  snake.  But  perhaps  I  should  write  a  little  more 
about  our  stay  in  Ottawa  for  I  remember  seeing  brother  Robert 
swim  into  Fox  river  and  catch  wood  that  was  floating  and  bring 
it  to  the  bank  near  the  house  that  we  lived  in  and  chop  and  split 
it  for  fuel.  Brother  John  and  I  were  bathing  in  one  of  the  rivers 
about  every  day  while  in  Ottawa  but  as  I  could  not  swim  then  I 
did  not  intend  to  go  into  deep  water,  however,  I  did  once  step 
into  water  over  my  head.  Uncle  John  took  me  in  a  very  small 
boat  or  canoe  quite  a  distance  up  the  Illinois  river.  We  some- 
times crossed  Fox  river  in  small  boats  to  go  to  the  main  part  of 
the  town  where  the  stores  or  groceries  were. 

17 


18  MAKING  A  NEW  HOME. 

Once  I  remember  going  to  church  or  preaching  in  Ottawa. 
Whether  the  building  was  built  for  a  church  or  other  purpose,  I 
can't  say.  While  over  there,  I  remember  seeing  a  fight  or  at 
least  seeing  one  man  with  a  sore  head  carried  into  a  drug  store. 
I  saw  one  person  carry  a  lot  of  barrel  staves  which  I  learned 
afterwards  were  to  have  been  used  as  weapons.  But  the  fight 
ended  prematurely.  The  fighters  were  working  on  the  canal.  A 
quarrel  ensued  and  but  one  man  got  badly  used.  It  seems  one 
crowd  got  hold  of  whisky,  then  the  whisky  got  hold  of  that  crowd 
and  they  were  whipped. 

But  to  come  back  to  this  farm.  I  think  that  father  had 
bought  two  oxen  and  two  cows  with  their  calves ;  also  a  bull  and 
a  mare  and  a  light  wagon.  Uncle  John  and  brother  Robert  made 
a  wagon  or  trucks  entirely  of  wood  to  use  with  the  oxen  to  haul 
hay  and  wood ;  but  they  hauled  or  snaked  the  wood  mostly  on  the 
ground  so  to  have  the  small  branches  for  kindling  or  light ;  but 
father  had  bought  candles  and  oil  too  I  think  for  light  and  also 
flour  and  sugar  for  winter  use.  We  had  been  here  only  about 
two  weeks  when  brother  John  was  taken  very  sick  and  Robert 
rode  to  Ottawa  for  a  doctor  as  we  knew  of  none  nearer,  but  the 
doctor  only  came  once  as  John  died  soon.  I  think  that  the  doctor 
called  it  bilious  fever  that  both  he  and  Martha  had.  We  heard 
some  time  after,  that  the  doctor  drowned  by  trying  to  cross  the 
river  in  a  ferry  boat  on  which  were  a  number  of  cattle.  The 
cattle  ran  to  one  side  of  the  boat  and  tipped  it  over.  I  remember 
hearing  father  tell  Robert  to  find  out  if  that  doctor  left  a  widow 
or  a  mother  that  might  need  the  pay  for  the  doctor's  service  here. 
But  Robert  found  out  that  the  doctor  was  a  single  man  from  the 
East  and  the  people  in  Ottawa  did  not  know  whether  he  had  a 
mother  living  or  not  so  we  never  found  out  what  his  bill  was  or 
anyone  to  pay  it  to.  As  about  all  the  timber  had  been  claimed 
even  before  the  people  settled  on  it,  father  bought  the  claim  to 
this  grove  for  $150,  although  he  said  that  the  parties  at  Allen's 
grove  offered  to  give  half  of  their  claim  to  that  grove.  But  as 
he  wished  to  get  enough  timber  for  uncle  John  and  his  children, 
all  in  the  same  place,  he  preferred  to  buy  this  grove,  now  known 
as  Smith's  grove  in  the  town  of  Willow  Creek  in  Lee  county, 
Illinois.  As  our  cows  ran  at  large  or  loose,  when  the  prairie  fire 
came  in  the  fall  of  1837,  they,  with  their  calves  and  bull  run  off 


MAKING  A  NEW  HOME. 


19 


or  were  stolen  and  we  never  found  them  again,  although  father 
hunted  far  and  near  for  them  till  his  mare  got  sick.  Then  she 
died,  I  think  of  lung  fever.  We  had  no  stable  built  then,  so  we 
had  to  tie  her  by  our  haystack.  Fortunately  Robert  and  uncle 
John  were  using  the  oxen  when  the  fire  came  and  they  did  not  get 
away  with  the  cows. 


SMITH'S   GROVE,    NEAR   DAVID    SMITH'S    RESIDENCE. 

Misfortunes  came  rapidly  as  you  may  see.  But  we  soon  had 
a  much  greater  misfortune ;  our  house  burned  with  most  of  our 
newest  clothing  and  bedding  and  money  and  winter  provisions. 
As  the  snow  came  through  our  roof  father  thatched  the  house 
with  long  hay  and  fastened  it  on  with  hay  ropes  as  was  often 
done  in  Scotland.  That  roof  got  on  fire  one  morning  in  Decem- 


20  MAKING  A  NEW  HOME. 

her,  1837,  and  father  got  on  the  roof  to  get  the  hay  off  but  did 
not  have  his  knife  or  anything  to  cut  the  hay  ropes  with  and  they 
were  so  hard  to  break  that  it  took  him  so  long  that  by  the  time 
he  got  the  hay  off  one  side  of  the  roof  the  other  was  all  on  fire 
and  Robert  went  in  the  loft  to  try  to  get  the  boxes  that  had  our 
best  clothing  and  bedding  in,  down ;  but  it  was  so  hot  under  the 
low  roof  that  his  hair  took  fire  and  he  had  to  come  down  and 
leave  everything  there  to  burn.  When  father  gave  up  trying  to 
save  the  house,  he  tried  to  save  his  trunk  or  chest  that  he  had  his 
money  and  best  clothing  in,  but  as  we  had  a  bed  well  filled  with 
hay  on  each  side  of  the  only  door  and  it  was  burning  fircely,  he 
could  not  get  in  that  way  so  he  tore  out  the  only  window  and 
went  in  that  way  and  lifted  the  trunk  or  chest  to  the  window  but 
did  not  get  it  through  as  he  thought  it  was  too  large  for  the  small 
window.  There  were  a  lot  of  candles  hanging  above  the  window 
that  were  melting  and  when  the  hot  grease  ran  into  his  face  so 
that  he  could  not  see  well  or  he  thought  perhaps  he  might  have 
got  the  trunk  out,  and  mother  was  outside  urging  him  to  come 
out  lest  he  be  suffocated  and  burned  to  death ;  so  he  threw  a  lot 
of  his  books  out  and  left  his  trunk.  I  remember  that  I  was  in  bed 
when  mother  told  me  that  the  house  was  on  fire  and  to  take  my 
clothes  out  and  dress  where  she  had  spread  some  bedding  but  I 
forgot  my  shoes  and  they  were  burned  and  I  went  barefooted  that 
winter,  but  sometimes  mother  let  me  slip  her  shoes  on,  but  oftener 
I  went  without  any  and  often  played  even  on  the  ice  without 
shoes  or  anything  on  my  feet.  The  family  that  lived  at  Allen's 
grove  then  had  three  log  houses  or  rooms  all  joined  together  and 
they  let  us  move  into  one  of  them.  They  also  helped  us  to  build 
another  log  house  on  our  farm  and  they  also  made  ointment  or 
salve  of  bittersweet  root  or  bark  and  lard  for  father  to  use  on  his 
face  that  was  burned  with  the  melted  candle.  That  family  con- 
sisted of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunsaulus  and  two  daughters.  I  think 
that  the  youngest  was  near  my  age,  6,  the  other  about  8.  There 
also  was  a  man  living  with  them  they  called  "Goose."  I  under- 
stood that  they  came  from  Canada  but  I  think  that  they  had  not 
been  here  long  as  they  said  that  McDowell  had  lived  there.  But 
McDowell  was  living  at  the  east  end  of  PawPaw  Grove  near  the 
Harris  family's,  as  he  had  married  one  of  the  Harris  girls  and  I 
think  that  they  found  it  lonesome  living  at  Allen's  Grove,  conse- 


MAKING  A  NEW  HOME.  21 

quently  they  moved  back  near  her  folks.  Mr.  Harris's  father 
was  or  had  been  a  preacher  and  he  officiated  at  my  brother  John's 
funeral  in  August,  1837.  I  heard  afterwards  that  he  had  married 
himself  to  a  girl  of  about  16  when  he  was  about  80,  performing 
the  marriage  ceremony  himself ;  but  as  her  parents  did  not  con- 
sider the  marriage  legal  and  she  was  not  of  age  they  would  not 
let  her  live  with  him.  I  suppose  that  old  Mr.  Harris  must  have 
been  in  his  second  childhood  then,  as  my  old  schoolmaster,  Mr. 
Robert  Walker,  told  me  that  old  Mr.  Harris  told  him  that  the 
marriage  was  recorded  in  heaven  and  once  when  brother  Robert 
was  at  Harris's  and  the  old  man's  son  was  starting  to  Ottawa,  the 
old  man  told  his  son  to  enquire  about  his  wife. 

It  was  one  Sunday  morning  in  December,  1837,  that  our 
house  burned  and  I  think  that  about  all  that  was  saved  was  car- 
ried out  by  mother  and  sister  Martha  as  father,  and  I  think  uncle 
John,  were  trying  to  save  the  house  till  the  beds  got  burning  on 
each  side  of  the  door  and"  Robert  had  been  in  the  loft  trying  to 
get  things  out  of  there  till  too  late.  And  I  remember  that  I  lost 
my  Sunday  clothes  and  both  Sunday  and  work  day  shoes  and 
father  said  that  he  had  $120  in  his  trunk  or  chest  that  burned 
with  his  best  clothes. 

He  also  had  a  watch  and  the  works  of  a  large  clock  and  a 
single  and  a  double  barrel  shot  gun  burned,  besides  our  best  bed- 
ding and  clothing  and  provisions.  I  remember  that  we  had 
neither  timepiece  or  mirror  in  the  house  for  quite  a  number  of 
years  thereafter  as  father  wanted  to  save  all  that  he  could  to  pay 
the  government  for  our  land — $1.25  per  acre — when  it  came  into 
market.  We  had  no  mirror  when  I  first  began  to  shave  at  17 
years  of  age  so  I  used  a  new  bright  tin  dish.  Father  and  Robert 
shaved  without  anything  of  the  kind  and  Robert  said  that  he  had 
never  cut  himself  while  shaving  without  a  mirror  but  he  cut  him- 
self while  shaving  with  one.  But  to  go  back  to  the  fire;  we 
picked  up  what  we  had  and  loaded  it  on  the  sled  and  all  went  to 
the  Gunsaulus  house.  They  thought  that  we  had  come  visiting 
as  it  was  Sunday.  They  let  us  move  right  into  one  of  their  houses 
and  I  remember  that  a  great  part  of  their  living  was  buckwheat. 
One  of  the  men  would  grind  it  in  a  large  coffee  mill  and  the 
women  baked  the  cakes ;  but  of  course  sifted  the  buckwheat  flour 
with  a  hand  sieve.  My  folks  lived  mostly  on  corn  cooked  in  dif- 


22  MAKING  A  NEW  HOME. 

ferent  ways  as  our  flour  was  burned  and  father  said  that  he  had 
to  buy  corn  on  credit  at  $i  per  bushel.  We  often  had  hulled  corn 
for  dinners  that  was  hulled  by  soaking  it  in  lye  or  ashes  and 
water  till  the  hull  or  skin  would  rub  off  easily  and  then  rubbing 
and  washing  and  soaking  till  they  got  it  clean  enough.  When 
father  bought  some  pork  and  a  cow,  we  often  had  mush  and  milk 
for  suppers  and  we  used  some  of  our  burned  or  charred  flour 
for  a  substitute  for  coffee.  We  tried  acorns  and  other  substitutes 
for  coffee  and  father  used  to  gather  and  dry  redroot  leaves  for 
tea.  I  remember  that  Robert  caught  a  rabbit  in  the  loose  deep 
snow,  as  we  had  no  gun  for  a  few  years  after  our  house  burned. 
Mother  made  a  pot  pie  of  the  rabbit  and  I  thought  it  quite  a  treat. 
I  remember  too  that  we  had  a  large  cast  iron  dish  I  think  16  or 
1 8  inches  across  and  about  6  inches  deep  that  mother  used  to 
bake  bread  in  it,  heating  it  by  putting  hot  coals  of  fire  both  above 
and  below  it  as  it  had  a  cast  iron  cover  on  it.  We  had  an  open 
fireplace  in  both  the  houses  that  burned  and  in  the  next  that  they 
built;  but  as  the  second  often  smoked  badly  we  soon  got  uncle 
John  to  go  to  Chicago  with  our  one  horse  wagon  and  buy  a  stove. 
I  think  that  he  drove  his  own  horse  as  we  had  none  since  the 
one  died  in  the  fall  of  1837  till  Robert  got  one  of  Mr.  Howlett 
in  1839  which  he  paid  for  by  breaking  prairie.  A  cousin  of 
father's  had  sent  father  $100,  and  told  him  to  keep  it  till  he  was 
able  to  pay  it.  His  name  was  Wm.  Wilson  and  he  and  his  sons 
kept  store  in  Glasgow,  Scotland.  He  sold  boots  and  shoes  and 
umbrellas  till  1860  when  father  died ;  I  have  not  heard  from  them 
since. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Early  Farm  Work 

Father  and  Robert  bought  a  few  oxen  and  a  breaking  plow 
and  Robert  did  considerable  breaking  prairie  for  ourselves  and 
others  and  I  used  to  go  with  them  to  help  what  I  could  till  I  was 
taken  sick  with  the  ague.  Robert  used  to  take  the  plow  share 
or  lathe  to  be  sharpened  about  once  a  week  to  the  nearest  black- 
smith that  he  knew  of,  about  6  miles  south  of  where  Earlville  is 
now.  He  used  to  tie  the  plow  share  on  between  two  wheels  of  a 
wagon  like  a  cart  and  hitch. a  yoke  of  good  traveling  steers  and 
ride  there  and  back  the  same  day.  Robert  was  hardly  17  years 
old  when  he  began  breaking  prairie  but  he  had  taken  a  man's 
place  at  about  all  kinds  of  work  on  the  farm  ever  since  we  came 
here  when  he  was  only  15  years  old.  He  was  much  handier  with 
oxen  than  father  or  uncle  John  and  he  split  and  hauled  nearly 
all  the  rails  that  we  fenced  our  farm  with,  but  uncle  John  used 
to  work  with  him  much  of  the  time  till  mother  died  in  1840  when 
uncle  went  to  Ottawa  and  1  think,  clerked  or  worked  for  one  of 
the  Armours  there  for  two  or  three  years.  Then  he  came  here 
again  and  changed  work  with  Robert  again  till  he  got  a  little 
farm  fenced  and  plowed  or  broken  and  a  log  house  on  it  and 
as  he  received  some  money  from  Scotland  that  he  was  heir  to, 
he  went  to  Dixon  to  pay  the  government  for  his  farm ;  but  he 
found  that  it  was  surveyed  and  divided  into  so  many  pieces  he 
would  have  to  buy  other  land  to  get  the  whole  of  his  farm  and 
as  he  had  not  money  enough  to  do  so  he  did  not  buy  any  land 
then  but  bought  sheep  with  his  money  and  he  rented  the  farm  to 
a  Mr.  Hair  and  left  the  sheep  for  Mr.  Hair  to  take  care  of  I 
think  that  many  of  the  sheep  were  old  and  as  they  were  fed  little 
or  no  grain,  and  nothing  but  prairie  hay,  a  number  of  them  got 
poor  and  died  in  spring,  so  uncle  John  got  tired  of  the  sheep  busi- 
ness and  sold  them  to  father  but  the  snakes  and  wolves  killed 
some  of  them.  One  night  we  had  forgotten  to  take  them  from 

23 


24  EARLY  FARM  WORK. 

the  pasture  to  their  yard  during  which  there  were  nine  of  them 
killed  by  wolves  or  dogs  and  once  when  I  was  helping  father  haul 
hay  I  drove  within  about  20  feet  of  a  wolf  that  was  eating  one 
of  our  sheep  it  had  just  killed.  I  rose  to  try  to  throw  the  fork 
into  the  wolf  but  it  run  off  as  soon  as  I  began  to  rise  up.  At 
another  time  I  showed  Mr.  Hair  a  wolf  that  was  watching  to  slip 
up  to  the  sheep  and  he  got  his  rifle  and  got  near  enough  so  that 
he  killed  it  and  at  another  time  John  Nettleton  came  here  and 
saw  a  wolf  eating  one  of  our  sheep  or  lambs  and  he  went  to  our 
house  but  found  no  person  there.  A  rifle  was  found  there  ready 
loaded  but  as  it  was  a  double  triggered  gun  he  did  not  know  how 
to  use  it  so  he  did  not  try  to  shoot  it.  Another  time  before  we 
got  the  sheep,  Robert  was  hauling  rails  from  the  grove  to  the  field 
and  while  passing  the  house  he  saw  a  wolf  trying  to  catch  some 
of  our  hens  so  he  got  the  rifle  and  fired,  but  it  ran  off  and  he  did 
not  know  whether  he  hit  it  or  not  but  when  I  came  from  the 
field  I  heard  our  dog  and  another  dog  fighting  something  and  I 
found  it  was  a  wolf  and  helped  them  kill  it  and  when  we  skinned 
it  we  found  a  ball  hole  through  the  bowels.  Robert  caught  two 
in  a  trap  once  but  one  of  them  chewed  its  foot  off  and  left  it  in 
the  trap.  A  neighbor  killed  one  with  only  three  feet  on  some 
time  after  that  which  must  have  been  our  wolf.  But  I  will  leave 
the  wolf  stories  for  the  present  and  tell  of  our  first  gardening  and 
farming  in  this  country.  In  the  spring  after  our  house  burned 
father  hired  some  of  David  Town's  family  to  break  about  nine 
acres  of  prairie  for  us  as  we  only  had  two  oxen  and  no  good 
plow.  That  was  all  that  we  had  under  cultivation  in  1838  and  we 
used  about  an  acre  for  garden.  The  rest  we  planted  to  seed  corn 
but  only  raised  about  80  bushels  of  corn. 

Mrs.  David  Town  gave  mother  some  garden  seeds  and  put 
a  dollar  in  change  in  a  little  package  of  beans  that  she  gave  her 
to  plant  and  mother  bought  a  hen  and  a  rooster  with  that  money 
and  that  was  the  beginning  of  our  poultry  in  this  country.  I 
tried  to  increase  our  flock  after  mother  died  but  as  hogs  run  at 
large  then,  a  neighbor's  old  sow  came  and  stayed  around  here  till 
I  thought  that  she  had  killed  and  eaten  about  80  of  the  little 
chickens.  Simultaneously  the  rats  came  and  I  found  quite  a  num- 
ber of  little  chickens  killed  and  taken  into  a  rat's  hole  in  the 
stable.  But  we  saw  no  rats  here  till  near  1841.  Sister  Martha 


EARLY  FARM  WORK. 


25 


had  worked  some  for  David  Town's  folks.  As  they  kept  travel- 
ers they  often  needed  help  in  the  house.  But  wages  for  both  men 
and  women  were  very  low  at  that  time.  She  was  at  work  for 
Christiance  at  Malugin's  Grove  in  1838  when  she  got  acquainted 
with  Wm.  Hopps  whom  she  married  about  that  time.  This  was 
the  first  wedding  in  Lee  county.  I  think  it  was  in  the  spring  or 


MARTHA   (SMITH)  HOPPS,  THE  FIRST  BRIDE  IN   LEE  COUNTY. 

summer  of  1838  that  the  Gunsaulus  family  moved  away  and  let 
Richard  Allen  have  the  claim  to  that  place.  I  understood  the 
Gunsaulus  family  moved  to  Wisconsin.  Allen  only  stayed  there 
about  two  years  and  let  a  Mr.  Bond  have  the  place.  Mr.  Bond 
stayed  there  a  year  or  more  and  he  let  a  Mr.  Price  have  the  place. 
Price  only  stayed  about  two  years  and  Mr.  I.  Shoudy  took  the 
place  and  stayed  there  many  years.  After  Shoudy's  second  wife 
died,  Robert  Wells  bought  the  west  part  of  that  place  and  But- 
terfield,  one  of  Shoudy's  sons-in-law,  had  the  other  part  a  few 
years.  Then  he  sold  it  to  Mr.  Frizwick  and  he  sold  it  to  a  Mr. 
Bend.  He  or  his  son  still  hold  the  place. 


26 


EARLY  FARM  WORK.  27 

But  I  must  tell  more  about  our  own  farm  which  has  not 
changed  owners  so  often,  as  I  still  own  and  live  on  the  same  place 
that  we  moved  on  in  August,  1837.  As  the  timber  in  this  grove 
was  too  hard  to  split  long  enough  for  rails  father  and  Robert 
bought  most  of  the  trees  or  logs  that  Robert  made  rails  of  to 
fence  our  farm  with.  They  got  some  from  PawPaw  and  Allen's 
grove  and  some  from  Twin  Grove.  I  think  he  hauled  the  most 
of  them  before  splitting  but  I  remember  going  with  them  for  a 
wagon  load  of  rails  to  PawPaw  Grove.  I  think  that  they  got 
them  of  Mr.  Harris.  I  remember  I  had  picked  up  a  hat  full  of 
walnuts  and  was  taking  them  home  in  my  hat  when  one  of  the 
wagon  wheels  came  off  and  let  a  lot  of  the  rails  roll  off  on  Rob- 
ert's feet  and  legs.  I  lifted  them  off  so  that  he  could  get  up.  T 
was  not  hurt  any  but  lost  part  of  the  nuts  and  got  my  hat  bruised 
badly.  Robert  was  all  right  when  I  got  the  rails  off  him  but  we 
were  late  getting  home  as  we  had  to  put  the  wheel  on  again  as 
well  as  many  of  the  rails.  It  was  getting  dark  then  and  we  had 
not  gone  far  before  the  wheel  again  came  off. 

Father  and  uncle  John  made  a  lot  of  ditch  and  sod  fence  by 
digging  a  ditch  about  three  feet  deep  and  three  feet  wide  at  the 
top  and  about  a  foot  or  more  at  the  bottom  and  building  a  wall 
of  the  top  sods  three  feet  high  near  the  side  of  the  ditch,  always 
having  the  ditch  on  the  outside  and  throwing  all  the  loose  dirt  on 
the  inside  so  that  the  cattle  would  have  to  get  over  the  ditch  then 
climb  the  wall  before  they  could  get  into  the  field.  But  as  the 
cattle  all  had  horns  they  would  get  into  the  ditch  and  hook  the 
bank  till  they  could  get  over  it  and  we  had  to  put  stakes  and  rails 
on  it  but  they  could  not  make  a  good  fence  of  it.  Father  brought 
a  little  hedge  seed  from  Scotland  and  had  it  planted  on  top  of 
part  of  the  sod  fence.  None  of  it  grew,  however,  and  father 
planted  a  lot  of  cherry  sprouts  or  little  trees  that  had  come  up 
around  cherry  trees  that  he  had  bought.  These  had  kept  coming 
up  and  spreading  till  there  was  a  row  of  them  five  or  six  rods 
wide.  Then  I  had  them  dug  up  and  the  ditch  filled  so  that  we 
cultivated  the  land.  The  trees  never  had  much  fruit  on  and 
mostly  died,  but  sister  Jane  and  I  had  planted  some  plum  seed 
(or  stones)  on  part  of  the  sod  fence  and  they  grew  and  bore  lots 
of  plums  for  many  years.  But  the  trees  have  all  died  except 
those  that  have  come  up  around  the  roots  and  they  seldom  have 


28 


EARLY  FARM  WORK. 


EARLY  FARM  WORK.  29 

had  much,  if  any  fruit  on.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  very  seldom 
have  had  any  kind  of  plums  to  mature  a  good  crop  for  many 
years  back. 

As  I  have  written  already  Robert  had  started  a  breaking 
plow  in  1839.  He  had  attached  axle  and  log  wheels  and  lever  to 
hold  the  plow  out  or  in  the  ground,  similar  to  the  sulky  plows  of 
the  present  day ;  but  sometimes  large  roots  would  throw  the  plow 
out  unless  some  one  would  hold  the  handles  or  ride  on  the  plow- 
beam,  so  Robert  had  me  go  with  him  to  keep  the  oxen  pulling 
while  he  attended  to  the  plow.  He  got  along  well  alone  except 
in  tough  places  or  where  there  were  large  roots  and  when  I  was 
taken  sick  with  ague  he  had  to  work  alone  mostly.  I  was  sick 
about  a  month  that  time  and  sister  Jane  told  me  afterwards  that 
mother  expected  that  I  was  going  to  die  as  brother  John  had  died 
about  two  years  before.  Before  I  got  well  both  Jane  and  our 
little  two  year  old  brother  were  taken  sick  with  the  ague  but  I 
think  that  neither  of  them  were  sick  so  long  as  I  was.  The  next 
spring  in  1840,  father  had  me  drive  one  yoke  of  oxen  to  plow 
the  land  that  we  had  broken  a  year  or  two  before,  and  we  held 
the  plow  handle.  Before  we  finished  plowing,  a  man  while  mov- 
ing to  Wisconsin  got  stuck  in  some  slough  near  here  and  he  got 
Robert  with  our  oxen  to  pull  his  wagon  out  of  the  slough  and  as 
he  had  a  good  team  of  mares,  father  traded  four  of  our  best  oxen 
for  them  as  he  did  not  like  to  handle  oxen  nearly  as  well  as  he 
did  horses  and  I  was  very  glad  that  they  made  the  trade  as  father 
could  then  plow  without  my  driving  and  we  raised  a  number  of 
colts  from  those  mares  years  after.  Robert  sold  one  of  them  and 
a  mate  to  it  that  he  had  bought  of  J.  D.  Rogers  for  $100  after 
both  were  grown  up  horses  and  he  paid  it  to  the  government  for 
80  acres  of  his  farm,  but  before  that,  father  sold  one  of  the  colts 
for  $35  when  it  was  about  three  years  old  and  he  also  sold  a  few 
cows  for  $7  per  head  and  he  paid  the  government  $50  for  the  40 
acre  lot  that  our  buildings  were  on,  the  same  lot  that  all  my  build- 
ings stand  on  now.  We  raised  some  wheat  in  1840  but  as  father 
never  got  the  hang  of  cutting  grain  with  a  cradle  he  hired  Mr. 
McDowell  and  Mr.  Harris  to  cut  it.  We  raised  a  little  buckwheat 
in  1839  but  I  think  no  other  small  grain,  but  some  potatoes  and 
corn  in  both  that  year  and  in  1838.  Potatoes  used  to  be  good 
both  in  quality  and  quantity  before  we  had  potato  rot  or  potato 


30  EARLY  FARM  WORK. 

bugs  here.  But  father  never  had  very  good  crops  of  corn  as  he 
only  used  a  corn  plow  to  cultivate  it.  Our  first  plows  here  had 
only  wood  moldboards  and  of  course  would  not  scour  but  if  they 
had  scoured  they  would  not  have  been  any  better  for  cultivating 
corn  with,  as  they  would  cut  the  corn  roots  just  as  badly  and 
would  cover  the  corn  even  worse.  We  used  to  mark  the  corn 
ground  in  rows  both  ways  and  plant  by  hand  and  cover  with  hoes 
but  father  sometimes  marked  both  corn  and  potato  ground  out 
with  a  plow  and  then  covered  the  seed  with  the  same  plow  and 
we  generally  used  only  one  horse  while  cultivating  either  corn 
or  potatoes.  Our  first  threshing  machines  here  did  not  separate 
the  grain  from  straw  or  chaff  but  just  run  the  bundles  through  a 
cylinder  and  we  shook  the  grain  out  of  the  straw  with  forks  and 
then  cleaned  it  with  fanning  mills.  But  many  times  we  tramped 
oats  out  with  horses  and  then  cleaned  them  with  fanning  mills 
by  hand  but  wheat  was  our  main  crop  then  as  other  grain  would 
not  often  pay  to  haul  to  Chicago  which  was  our  principal  market. 
Sometimes  we  could  sell  potatoes  or  oats  at  La  Salle  or  Peru  as 
they  could  ship  them  down  the  Illinois  river  before  they  had 
railroads  there. 


CHAPTER    V. 

The  Mother  Dies — School  Days 

In  1840,  father  and  mother,  Robert  and  uncle  John  were  all 
taken  sick  with  ague.  Robert,  however,  kept  up  most  of  the  time, 
and  he  and  uncle  John  got  some  Peruvian  bark  and  doctored 
them  up  without  employing  any  doctor.  Mother  tried  several 
kinds  of  herbs  that  neighbors  recommended  but  she  kept  getting 
worse  till  she  died  that  fall  and  I  remember  a  few  days  before 
she  died  she  had  me  sit  on  the  bed  and  put  a  few  stiches  in  some 
of  my  clothes  that  needed  repairs  and  she  told  me  that  she 
thought  that  she  was  going  to  die  and  to  be  a  good  boy  and 
Robert  said  that  she  put  her  little  boy's  hand  in  Robert's  hand 
and  told  him  to  be  good  to  our  little  brother  for  both  she  and 
father  expected  to  die  soon  and  after  mother  died  father  told 
Robert  that  he  wished  to  be  buried  beside  his  wife  if  he  died  as 
he  expected  to  then ;  but  sister  Martha  and  husband  came  over 
and  he  went  to  Ottawa  and  got  some  medicine,  calomel  and  other 
kinds.  As  he  had  lived  with  a  doctor  he  knew  something  about 
medicine  and  he  physiced  father  so  thoroughly  that  it  broke  up 
the  ague  and  he  began  to  get  better  and  he  said  that  he  never 
had  anything  else  that  tasted  so  good  to  him  as  potatoes  and  salt 
did  then.  But  he  was  very  fond  of  milk.  Unfortunately  our 
only  cow  went  dry  before  he  fully  recovered  and  he  had  to  let 
Martha  and  husband  take  Jane  and  Alexander  home  with  them 
and  uncle  John  went  away  also  and  that  left  only  father  and 
Robert  and  myself  on  the  place  for  about  two  years  when  father 
let  me  go  to  the  Hopps  place  to  go  to  school  with  sister  Jane  as 
there  was  no  school  here  then.  However,  as  Hopps  needed  me 
on  the  farm  I  went  to  school  but  very  little  that  summer  or  fall 
and  they  had  no  winter  school  there  that  winter.  The  school  in 
the  spring  was  broken  up  with  whooping  cough  and  father  and 
Robert  came  to  the  Hopps  place  and  took  Jane  and  Alexander 
and  me  home,  and  started  us  all  to  school  at  PawPaw  although 

31 


32  THE   MOTHER   DIES,  SCHOOL   DAYS. 

it  was  two  miles  over  the  fields  which  we  generally  walked 
although  Alexander  was  only  six  years  old  then.  In  winter 
Robert  frequently  took  us  to  school  in  a  sled.  The  three  school 
houses  that  we  attended  at  different  times  were  made  of  logs  and 
the  benches  of  slabs.  In  the  three  first  houses  that  I  went  to 
at  Paw  Paw  Grove  I  generally  sat  in  front  of  a  window.  One 
day  while  we  were  all  out  of  the  house  at  noon  the  window  in 
front  of  where  I  sat  was  broken  and  a  lot  of  bird  shot  stuck 
in  the  log  cabin  below  the  window  but  none  of  the  pupils  had 
heard  the  shot  or  knew  how  it  happened  or  if  they  did  they  did 
not  own  it.  Some  one  may  have  fired  at  a  bird  in  that  direction 
but  I  thought  it  strange  that  none  of  the  pupils  had  heard  the 
shot.  Perhaps  we  were  noisy  playing  at  the  time  as  we  had  a 
large  swing  on  a  tree  a  distance  from  the  school  and  we  all  may 
have  been  around  the  swing  at  that  time.  I  remember  one  day 
while  coming  from  school  when  it  rained  very  hard ;  that  I  had 
only  shirt,  pants  and  hat  on  when  it  felt  like  pouring  ice  water 
on  us  all.  I  suppose  that  Jane  and  Alex  were  as  thinly  dressed 
as  myself.  I  remember  another  time  that  Alexander  and  I  got 
caught  in  a  hail  storm  with  as  little  clothing  on  as  we  had  com- 
ing from  school.  I  had  been  cultivating  corn  with  one  horse 
and  a  little  wooden  toothed  harrow  and  Alexander  was  pulling 
weeds.  I  think  that  he  was  8  or  9  years  old  then  and  I  about  14 
or  very  close.  We  both  got  on  the  one  horse  and  started  for 
home.  The  wind  took  my  hat  off  and  I  got  off  to  get  it.  The 
hail  began  to  pound  the  horse  so  hard  that  it  threw  Alex  off  and 
ran  home.  We  got  into  the  ditch  where  father  and  Uncle  John 
had  made  the  sod  fence  and  as  the  wind  was  in  the  east  and  the 
ditch  on  the  west  side  of  the  sod  fence  the  hail  did  not  hit  us 
much,  but  the  folks  at  the  house  were  alarmed  when  the  horse 
came  home  without  us.  Robert  and  Mr.  N.  C.  Allen  got  a  saddle 
and  something  else  and  started  to  find  us  holding  the  saddle  and 
other  articles  above  their  heads.  At  last  we  started  for  home 
as  it  had  nearly  stopped  hailing  when  we  met  Robert  and  Mr. 
Allen.  We  saw  hail  stones  as  large  as  hens'  eggs  but  think  that 
none  so  large  had  struck  us.  Many  windows  around  were 
broken.  As  the  corn  was  beaten  down  so  badly  that  we  could 
not  cultivate  it  for  some  days,  Robert  took  Mr.  Allen  and 
George  and  James  Hewlett  and  Alex  and  me  on  a  fishing  trip 


THE   MOTHER  DIES,  SCHOOL   DAYS.  33 

to  Milford,  near  Rock  ford.  But  we  did  not  get  many  fish,  as 
they  said  that  it  was  too  late  for  good  fishing,  although  we  hired 
a  man  with  a  seine  to  help  us,  but  we  had  a  lot  of  boys'  fun  and 
when  we  got  back  the  corn  had  straightened  up  and  grew  faster 
than  it  had  before  the  hail,  so  we  could  cultivate  it  again.  Our 
tools  for  cultivating  were  very  poor. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Farm  Implements,  Prairie  Fire  and  Uncle 
John  Colville 

We  had  little  or  no  money  left  to  spare  to  buy  better  tools 
as  we  wished  to  pay  the  government  for  our  land  and  there  were 
no  agricultural  houses  near,  that  sold  such  tools,  so  we  got  the 
home  blacksmith  to  make  steel  shovels  mostly  out  of  old  plow 
lathes  or  plow  moldboards.  as  they  had  begun  using  plows  in  the 
early  40*5  with  steel  moldboards  that  would  scour.  I  made  a  few 
wooden  frames  for  the  double  shoveled  cultivators  and  put  on 
some  of  the  homemade  steel  shovels  and  they  worked  well ;  but 
often  those  using  them  would  let  them  run  so  deep  and  so  close 
to  the  corn  that  many  of  the  corn  roots  were  broken  so  that  some- 
times the  crop  was  nearly  ruined.  I  made  a  cultivator  with  five 
shovels  to  work  between  the  corn  rows  with  one  horse,  but  we 
did  not  like  it  as  well  as  those  that  had  only  two  shovels.  It 
was  much  better,  however,  than  the  wooden  toothed  one  that  I 
had  been  using.  We  also  got  and  used  some  one-horse  drills  to 
plant  our. corn  with  instead  of  hoes,  but  of  course  that  was  much 
slower  work  than  the  two-horse  drills  of  later  dates ;  but  we 
soon  quit  planting  corn  with  drills  except  on  land  that  was  not 
weedy,  as  we  could  only  cultivate  the  corn  one  way  and  if  we 
had  a  wet  spring  the  weeds  would  get  such  a  start  that  we  could 
not  kill  them  without  much  hoeing.  We  did  not  think  that  that 
paid  well.  Next  we  got  two  row  corn  planters  to  be  used  by  a 
man  dropping  the  corn  but  if  we  wished  it  planted  in  the  rows 
both  ways  of  course  we  had  to  mark  out  the  land  across  the  way 
that  we  run  the  planter  and  many  could  not  drop  it  in  good  rows 
across.  So  dropping  machines  were  abandoned  and  the  wire 
check  rowing  machine  of  the  present  day  was  adopted ;  but  of 
course  there  have  been  many  changes  and  improvements  made 
on  them  in  late  years.  But  I  will  go  back  and  tell  more  of  Uncle 
John's  farms  or  farming.  He  nearly  always  rented  out  his 


FARM  IMPLEMENTS,  PRAIRIE  FIRE,  JOHN  COLVILLE.    35 

farms  and  worked  at  other  work  and  after  Mr.  Hair  had  rented 
his  first  farm  a  year  he  gave  up  his  claim  to  it  to  the  Nettleton 
family  and  they  were  to  put  about  as  much  improvement  on  the 
farm  now  known  as  the  Ptilver  farm  for  Uncle  John  as  he  liked 
that  farm  better  than  his  first  farm.  Accordingly  the  Nettletons 
broke  up  and  fenced  forty  acres  of  it  and  Uncle  John  raised  one 
crop  of  wheat  on  it  and  then  rented  it  to  N.  C.  Allen.  Very 
soon,  however,  he  sold  it  to  Mr.  Atkinson  after  he  had  paid 
the  government  for  120  acres ;  but  he  only  got  $500  for  that  farm 
and  I  thought  it  so  cheap  that  I  asked  father  to  buy  it  for  me 
as  I  was  not  of  age  at  that  time  and  I  liked  that  farm.  But  as 
father  still  owed  the  government  for  forty  acres  of  his  claim  and 
Robert  thought  that  we  had  enough  land  for  the  whole  family 
they  did  not  buy  it  or  pay  the  government  for  the  last  forty  acres 
of  father's  claim  and  the  Illinois  Central  R.  R.  Co.  gof  possession 
of  it  and  raised  the  price  on  it  to  $8  per  acre  instead  of  the  gov- 
ernment price  of  $1.25,  so  father  had  to  pay  $8  per  acre  for  it 
while  the  Nettletons  were  fortunate  enough  to  get  forty  acres 
joining  it  for  $1.25  per  acre  as  the  I.  C.  R.  R.  company  only  had 
every  second  section  or  what  remained  unsold  on  the  even  num- 
bered sections. 

Robert  used  to  break  or  plow  two  or  three  furrows  on  each 
side  of  a  strip  of  land  twenty  or  thirty  feet  apart  to  burn  be- 
tween the  furrows  to  keep  the  prairie  fires  out  of  the  grove  or 
fields  but  sometimes  we  did  not  get  the  strips  burned  off  soon 
enough  and  others  would  let  their  prairie  fires  run  and  do  great 
damage  by  burning  hay  or  fences  or  other  property  of  others. 
I  heard  that  in  Iowa  they  passed  a  law  making  it  a  state's  prison 
offense  to  start  a  prairie  fire  and  let  it  run.  Many  were  very 
careless  about  that  matter  in  this  state.  I  think  it  was  in  the 
fall  of  1845  that  some  of  the  Paw  Paw  people  started  a  fire  and 
let  it  run  and  it  burned  about  2.000  rails  of  ours  because  we  did 
not  have  a  strip  burned  but  had  furrows  plowed  to  burn  between. 
Robert  was  away  breaking  furrows  for  neighbors  and  we  were 
waiting  for  a  still  day  or  favorable  wind  as  we  did  not  like  to 
burn  it  with  a  strong  wind  lest  the  fire,  might  get  beyond  our 
control  and  burn  our  own  fences.  The  neighbors  at  Allen's  Grove 
did  not  have  their  strips  burned  either  and  one  of  them,  a  Mr. 
Basford  sent  his  girl  to  try  to  get  us  to  help  burn  between  their 


36    FARM  IMPLEMENTS,  PRAIRIE  FIRE,  JOHN  COLVILLE. 


furrows  as  she  said  that  the  prairie  fire  was  coming  from  Paw 
Paw.  Father  said  we  would  have  to  burn  our  own  and  took 
Alexander  and  me  to  burn  between  the  furrows.  He  started 
Alex  and  me  to  burn  the  west  part  and  he  took  the  east  part, 
but  as  the  fire  from  Paw  Paw  had  nearly  reached  us  we  had  to 
work  very  fast  to  keep  ahead  of  it.  Alex,  and  I  did  save  our 
side  of  the  fence  but  the  fire  got  the  start  of  father  and  burned 
the  most  of  the  rails  on  the  east  side  of  the  field.  Before  we 
had  finished  burning  the  west  side,  Uncle  John  came  and  got  us 


JOHN   COLVILLE. 

to  help  him  burn  the  strip  south  of  the  field  that  he  had  just  sold 
to  the  Nettleton  family.  They  had  not  moved  on  the  farm  then. 
But  Alexander  and  I  went  back  to  help  father  after  helping 
Uncle  John  burn  past  his  farm  and  as  the  fire  had  gone  past  him 
and  set  many  of  the  rails  on  fire  he  was  taking  the  fence  down 
and  spreading  the  rails  so  that  they  would  not  touch  each  other 
as  they  would  not  burn  much  in  that  way.  We  worked  till  long 
after  dark  at  that  work  and  without  having  any  dinner.  I  do 
not  know  whether  our  neighbors  at  Allen's  Grove  lost  much  then 


FARM  IMPLEMENTS,  PRAIRIE  FIRE,  JOHN  COLVILLE.    37 

but  my  folks  thought  that  we  lost  about  2,000  rails  in  sloughs  or 
where  the  grass  was  heavy  the  whole  fence  was  burned  but  we 
saved  the  middle  part  of  many  rails  that  had  one  or  both  ends 
burned  off  where  they  lay  across  each  other  in  the  fence.  We 
never  got  any  pay  for  the  rails  that  were  burned,  but  I  suppose 
we  might  have  if  the  parties  that  let  the  fire  go  were  responsible. 
Father  never  liked  to  sue  any  one,  but  he  went  to  see  some  of  the 
parties  that  lit  the  fire  and  asked  if  they  were  willing  to  do  any- 
thing towards  paying  for  the  rails  burned  and  some  offered  to  let 
us  have  some  logs  to  make  rails  of.  But  father  thought  the  logs 
were  hard  to  split  so  that  they  did  not  like  to  split  them  them- 
selves, so  we  never  went  after  the  logs.  The  next  spring  we 
joined  fences  with  neighbors  and  left  about  all  the  land  between 
Paw  Paw  and  Allen's  and  Smith's  groves  in  one  large  field  about 
three  miles  long  and  two  miles  wide  but  in  a  few  years  the  most 
of  the  farms  were  fenced  separately  and  a  public  road  running 
north  from  the  village  of  Paw  Paw  cut  off  about  1900  acres  of 
the  big  field. 

Uncle  John  used  to  make  shingles  with  a  machine  to  slice 
them  off  from  blocks  that  had  been  boiled  a  long  time  to  soften 
the  wood.  First  he  had  two  men  with  a  long  lever,  but  he  after- 
wards attached  a  horse  power  to  force  the  knife  through  the 
soft  blocks  of  wood. 

As  I  had  written  about  Uncle  John  selling  his  farms  for  very 
low  prices  I  will  mention  other  reasons  why  he  never  succeeded 
financially.  He  would  work  or  write  or  clerk  very  cheaply.  He 
used  to  make  deeds  or  applications  for  pensions  and  much  other 
writing  for  very  little  pay  and  he  clerked  for  Wm.  Robinson  in 
his  store  both  in  Paw  Paw  and  Earlville  for  low  wages  and  after 
he  was  married,  he  kept  store  for  himself  in  Pawpaw  and  would 
sell  on  credit  to  many  that  were  poor  payers  and  wait  on  them 
for  years  and  then  take  anything  that  he  could  use  and  allow 
them  high  prices  for  such  property  rather  than  try  to  collect 
money  by  law.  As  there  was  no  bank  in  Paw  Paw  then  he  some- 
times sent  money  to  Chicago  in  letters  to  pay  for  store  goods. 
He  lost  $150  at  one  time  in  that  way.  He  reported  the  loss  to 
the  government  and  they  sent  a  detective  to  try  to  find  out  who 
was  stealing  the  mail  and  the  detective  suspected  the  postmaster 
at  Shabbona  Grove  as  the  mail  was  carried  that  way  by  stage  at 


38    FARM  IMPLEMENTS,  PRAIRIE  FIRE,  JOHN  COLVILLE. 

that  time.  The  detective  got  Uncle  John  to  put  some  money 
that  was  marked  in  a  letter  and  direct  it  to  the  same  firm  that  he 
had  sent  the  money  to  that  was  stolen.  Then  the  detective  rode 
with  the  man  that  carried  the  mail  till  he  got  near  the  postoffice. 
At  this  point  he  told  the  driver  that  he  would  hunt  a  little  across 
the  field  while  the  mail  was  being  changed  and  then  ride  with 
the  mail  carrier  again  when  he  overtook  him.  When  he  did  so 
the  detective  opened  the  mail  bag  and  found  that  the  letter  with 
the  marked  money  had  been  taken  out.  So  he  went  out  and 
arrested  the  postmaster  and  found  the  marked  money  and  the 
postmaster  was  sentenced  to  go  to  state's  prison  for  twelve  years. 
I  heard  that  he  died  before  serving  his  time  there. 

When  Uncle  John  was  keeping  store  during  the  Civil  War 
some  things  that  he  had  bought  before  the  war  rose  very  much 
in  value,  but  he  still  sold  them  for  the  same  low  price  that  he 
began  with  on  some  things  especially  that  he  told  me  of.  He 
had  married  a  Mrs.  Thompson,  a  widow  with  a  son  about  the 
time  he  began  keeping  store  a  few  years  before  the  Civil  War 
began,  and  he  was  deputy  postmaster.  While  keeping  store  and 
when  Lincoln  was  elected  he  was  appointed  postmaster  and  he 
held  that  office  continuously  until  Cleveland  was  elected,  and  I 
think  that  he  was  township  treasurer  of  schools  about  all  that 
time,  and  afterwards,  until  he  died.  He  let  his  stepson  and 
others  run  the  store  before  he  died,  October  22,  1893. 

He  once  spoke  of  having  handled  much  money  for  the 
people,  but  thought  that  none  of  it  had  stuck  to  his  fingers.  In 
some  of  his  sales  or  donations  perhaps  some  might  consider  him 
generous  to  a  fault  as  he  said  he  had  hardly  enough  left  to  bury 
him  decently. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Accidents  and  Dangers  Incident  to 
Pioneer  Life 

But  to  go  back  to  the  old  farm :  Father  and  Robert,  Jane 
and  Alexander  and  I  lived  on  the  farm  and  worked  together, 
but  of  course  the  three  youngest  went  to  school  considerably ; 
but  Robert  never  went  to  school  in  this  country  and  I  never  went 
to  any  high  school.  I  finished  my  schooling  at  Allen's  Grove  in 
a  school  house  that  I  had  helped  to  build  when  I  was  about 
eighteen  years  of  age.  I  went  to  that  school  a  little  two  or  three 
winters  after  it  was  built  but  about  all  the  rest  of  my  schooling 
was  in  log  houses  that  were  built  for  dwelling  houses.  I  never 
went  to  school  much  in  the  summer  except  one  or  two  summers 
when  I  was  about  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old.  The  school 
house  at  Allen's  Grove  was  the  first  school  house  built  -in  this 
township.  Jane  and  Alexander  went  to  high  school  at  South 
Paw  Paw  some  and  Alexander  went  to  some  high  schools  or 
academies  at  Naperville  and  Dixon.  He  taught  school  some 
before  going  into  the  army  as  he  enlisted  in  the  Fourth  Cavalry 
in  1861  and  he  died  of  sickness  on  the  26th  day  of  April,  1862, 
at  Pittsburg  Landing,  Tenn.  Jane's  husband,  N.  A.  Nettleton, 
went  there  and  brought  his  remains  here  for  burial.  Nettleton 
was  taken  very  sick  with  the  same  disease  that  Alexander  died 
of  (dysentery)  soon  after  getting  home,  but  he  got  well  and 
lived  two  or  three  years  and  then  enlisted  and  went  into  camp 
with  other  volunteers  near  Chicago.  There  he  was  taken  sick 
with  pneumonia  and  came  home  on  furlough  but  he  soon  died. 
He  had  three  brothers  in  the  army.  Two  of  them  were  in  three 
years  and  are  still  living,  the  others  lived  many  years  after  the 
war  closed.  But  to  go  back  to  our  log  house  that  was  built  soon 
after  our  first  one  was  burned.  We  lived  in  it  about  eighteen 
years  before  building  a  frame  house,  and  all  worked  together, 
Robert  being  the  foreman  or  head  manager  nearly  all  the  time, 

39 


40 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 


as  father  was  not  near  as  handy  with  many  of  the  tools  or  kinds 
of  work  that  we  did  in  this  country  as  Robert  was.  He  some- 
times said  that  he  was  too  old  to  learn  so  he  let  Robert  manage 
and  take  the  lead  as  he  was  nine  years  older  than  I  was.  He 
kept  breaking  more  of  our  prairie  frequently  to  add  to  the  culti- 
vated part  of  the  farm.  When  I  was  about  seventeen  years  old 
I  did  the  most  of  the  work,  building  another  log  house  or  room 
joined  to  the  old  one,  as  I  was  quite  handy  with  carpenter  tools 
and  I  liked  that  kind  of  work.  The  others  did  the  farm  work 


ALEXANDER    SMITH. 

while  I  worked  at  carpenter  work  or  handling  or  hewing  logs. 
I  used  to  chop  down  and  cut  off  large  sawlogs  and  roll  them  on 
the  sled  with  horses  and  take  them  to  a  sawmill  that  was  run  by 
horsepower  near  South  Paw-Paw  to  have  them  sawed  into  tim- 
ber to  use  in  building  a  barn  but  for  the  outside  lumber  we 
hauled  pine  lumber  from  Chicago.  Once  while  rolling  a  large 
log  in  that  way,  Alexander  was  with  me,  and  when  the  log  struck 
the  sled  it  raised  a  little.  The  horses  stopped  because  it  was 
harder  to  pull.  Alexander  ran  up  with  a  pry  to  help  the  horses,  but 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS.  41 

just  then  the  rope  broke  and  let  the  log  roll  back.  Alexander 
had  to  run  out  of  the  way  very  fast.  I  was  afraid  that  the  log 
might  roll  on  him  and  perhaps  kill  him.  So  I  never  again 
wanted  any  person  behind  the  log  while  rolling  them  on  in  that 
way,  especially  if  the  log  was  large.  I  badly  hurt  myself  after 
that  when  I  had  borrowed  a  wagon  to  haul  a  log  to  a  saw  mill  at 
Malugin's  Grove.  When  coming  back  with  the  empty  wagon 
the  bolt  that  should  hold  the  neckyoke  from  slipping  back  was 
loose  and  worked  up  and  let  the  wagon  tongue  slip  through  the 
neckyoke  so  that  the  whiffletrees  hit  the  horses  and  they  began  to 
run.  I  tried  to  turn  up  hill  so  that  the  wagon  would  not  run 
on  the  horses,  but  the  ground  was  so  rough  that  the  wagon 
tipped  over  and  hurt  my  head  so  badly  that  I  could  not  stand 
when  I  first  tried  to,  so  I  staggered  and  fell  again.  I  was 
driving  the  same  high  spirited  team  that  had  run  over  Robert 
and  broke  his  collar  bone  and  bruised  him  in  many  places  when 
he  had  tried  to  hold  them  by  the  bits  when  the  cars  passed.  I 
have  known  of  men  being  killed  and  others  badly  hurt  by  having 
the  tugs  too  long  so  that  the  wagon  tongue  came  down  and  the 
team  ran.  People  should  be  careful  to  make  things  as  safe  as 
possible  when  hitching  up  teams  to  wagons  or  anything,  espe- 
cially if  the  teams  are  high  spirited.  But  I  will  mention  other 
accidents.  One  that  happened  with  Sister  Jane's  family  when 
Wm.  Hopps  was  going  to  help  her  to  take  a  large  calf  to 
Robert's  pasture.  They  tried  to  tie  it  behind  a  wagon  with 
team  hitched  to  the  wagon  and  her  three  children  and  another 
boy  in  the  wagon.  When  they  tried  to  pull  the  calf  up  to  the 
wagon  it  bawled  and  scared  the  team  so  that  they  ran  away 
with  the  four  children  and  one  of  the  horses  soon  ran  off  the  end 
of  a  little  bridge  and  tipped  the  wagon  box  off  and  threw  two. 
of  the  children  far  enough  so  that  the  wagon  box  did  not  hit 
them  but  shut  the  other  two  under  the  box,  which  was  bottom 
side  up.  Dan  Xettleton  ran  to  where  they  were  and  asked  those 
that  were  not  under  the  box  where  Charley  (his  brother's  son) 
was.  Charley  heard  him  and  called  out,  "I  am  here,  Uncle  Dan, 
but  I'm  dead."  None  of  them  were  hurt  much,  however,  which 
seems  almost  miraculous. 

I  had  another  accident  that  happened  to  myself  that  might 
have  been   fatal.     I  was  hauling-  the  bundles  to  be  stacked  but 


42 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 


only  had  a  wagon  box  with  boards  around  it  for  a  rack.  I  had 
nothing  in  front  to  keep  the  bundles  from  sliding  forward. 
While  driving  down  a  hill  the  front  end  of  the  load  slipped  out 
against  the  horses  and  they  ran  away  and  ran  over  me  on  top 
of  the  oat  bundles.  I  feel  sure  the  wagon  wheels  passed  over 
my  head  and  my  hair  showed  the  mark  of  the  wheel  but  the 
skin  was  not  broken.  I  suppose  the  oat  bundles  must  have  kept 
part  of  the  weight  of  the  load  off  my  head.  I  got  up  and  ran 
after  the  horses,  but  they  ran  to  where  Robert  was  stacking  and 


Ik 

fc  1 

rf  *#*  Ji*i 


JANE    (SMITH)    NETTLETON. 

he  caught  the  team.  We  went  to  work  again  as  usual,  but 
think  that  we  fixed  something  to  keep  the  bundles  from  sliding 
forward.  People  always  should  have  a  ladder  or  something 
solid  in  front  of  the  racks.  We  afterwards  knew  of  a  man 
being  killed  in  that  same  way,  but  I  was  young  and  careless ; 
only  about  sixteen,  I  think,  and  in  a  hurry  to  get  the  oats  stacked. 
We  only  had  one  good  rack.  That  was  being  used  by  another 
man.  I  had  another  accident  or  narrow  escape  afterwards.  T 
had  been  fixing  the  hay  carrier  in  my  hay  barn,  I  forgot  to  take 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS.  43 

a  board  down  that  I  had  to  sit  or  stand  on  while  fixing  the 
carrier  about  thirty  feet  high,  and  I  got  a  long-  pole  and  while 
standing  on  a  load  of  hay  pushed  the  board  so  that  it  fell  and  I 
saw  that  it  started  to  fall  quite  a  distance  from  me,  but  the  upper 
end  of  the  board  hit  something  that  changed  its  course  so  that 
it  came  down  swiftly  and  hit  me  on  the  shoulder  with  such 
force  that  I  think  if  it  had  hit  me  on  the  head  it  migiht  have 
been  fatal.  At  another  time  I  had  chopped  a  large  tree  down 
that  had  a  large  branch  or  crotch.  Nearly  half  of  the  tree 
struck  another  tree  and  split  off  and  fell  back  over  the  stump 
where  I  was  standing  but  I  ran  away  far  enough  so  that  it  did 
not  reach  me,  but  I  had  to  run  fast  as  it  came  down  quickly  and 
reached  far  past  the  stump.  I  have  heard  of  people  being  killed 
while  cutting  trees  among  other  trees.  But  I  remember  some 
incidents  that  are  amusing  when  no  harm  was  done.  Once  while 
Uncle  John  was  helping  Robert  unyoke  our  oxen  and  steers  to 
let  them  go  to  grass  for  the  night,  a  yoke  of  steers  that  had  a 
log  chain  attached  to  their  yoke  started  quickly  and  the  hook 
on  the  chain  caught  Uncle  John  by  the  heel  and  dragged  him 
down,  but  Robert  got  them  stopped  before  hurting  Uncle  John. 
They  were  having  a  big  laugh  about  it  and  I  went  to  the  yard 
to  see  what  they  were  laughing  about.  Another  amusing  acci- 
dent happened  while  Brother  Alexander  and  I  were  cutting 
oats  with  one  of  the  old  Ottawa  reapers  that  we  had  fixed  a 
platform  on  for  the  driver  to  stand  on.  I  had  a  tool  box  in 
front  of  the  driver's  feet  and  while  he  was  driving,  something 
stopped  the  machine  so  quickly  that  it  would  have  thrown  him 
head  foremost  by  the  horses  heels  as  the  tool  box  tripped  him, 
but  he  got  his  hands  on  the  tool  box  and  turned  a  nice  hand- 
spring and  struck  on  his  feet  standing  behind  his  horses. 

When  I  was  about  eighteen  years  old  I  went  with  Frank 
Ellsworth,  Sam  and  Eri  Butler  and  Henderson  Hinkston  on  a 
fishing  trip  to  Mill  ford  near  Rockford,  but  it  rained  long  before 
we  got  there  so  that  we  got  all  our  clothes  wet.  We  had  to  ford 
the  river  there  and  when  we  got  in  about  the  middle  of  the 
stream  the  team  would  not  pull  us  further  so  Sam  Butler  and 
Ellsworth  rode  the  horses  across  and  left  the  rest  of  us  in  the 
wagon,  but  we  saw  a  man  with  a  boat  and  got  him  to  take  us 
across.  Sam  and  Frank  got  a  man  with  oxen  and  a  long  rope 


44  ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 

that  they  tied  to  the  wagon  tongue  and  pulled  the  wagon  across, 
but  when  the  wagon  struck  the  river  bank  the  rope  broke  and 
the  wagon  started  down  the  river  as  the  water  was  deeper  there 
than  in  the  middle  of  the  river.  Eri  Butler  was  compelled  to  go 
into  the  water.  He  got  hold  of  a  front  wheel  of  the  wagon  and 
guided  it  so  that  the  wagon  tongue  run  ashore.  There  they 
hooked  a  log  chain  to  it  and  pulled  the  wagon  out.  I  had  an 
extra  suit  of  clothes  but  they  got  wet  in  the  river.  None  of  the 
others,  however,  had  taken  any  extra  clothing.  We  all  had  our 
clothes  wet  with  rain  and  as  there  was  no  hotel  or  boarding 
house  near  we  all  had  to  sleep  in  a  barn  with  our  wet  clothes 
on.  While  speaking  with  some  of  that  party  years  after,  they 
remarked  that  it  was  a  wonder  we  had  not  all  caught  our  death 
colds,  but  none  of  us  got  sick  from  that  exposure.  The  next  day 
we  hired  a  man  with  a  seine  and  we  caught  nearly  a  barrel  of 
dressed  fish.  The  next  morning  we  started  for  home  but  did 
not  try  to  ford  the  river  as  the  water  was  deeper  than  when  we 
came.  Instead,  we  got  an  old  scow  that  was  large  enough  to 
take  the  two  horses  across  on  and  then  take  the  wagon  at  a 
second  trip.  The  boat  was  above  the  dam  and  the  water  was 
deep  and  we  had  to  push  the  boat  with  long  poles.  We  had 
only  two  poles  and  while  going  one  trip  Hinkston  was  using  a 
pole  on  the  lower  side  of  the  boat  and  the  boat  floated  against 
the  pole  so  that  it  was  either  going  to  pull  him  off  the  boat  or 
take  the  pole  out  of  his  hand  but  I  got  by  him  and  helped  him  so 
that  we  could  keep  the  pole  for  I  think  that  if  we  had  lost  the 
pole  the  force  of  the  water  would  have  taken  us  all  over  the 
dam  and  likely  have  drowned  some  of  us  or  perhaps  all  as  I  do 
not  think  that  we  could  have  run  the  boat  across  with  only  one 
pole.  But  we  got  home  all  right  and  I  thought  we  earned  the 
fish  dearly  enough  by  risking  our  lives.  I  never  tried  that  kind 
of  fishing  trip  again  but  perhaps  I  g"ot  into  just  as  dangerous 
places  at  other  times.  Once,  I  think  it  was  a  year  or  two  before 
that  fishing  trip,  about  all  the  young  men  and  large  boys  near 
here  went  to  a  wolf  hunt  where  there  was  some  careless  shoot- 
ing done,  but  no  fatal  accidents.  The  Paw  Paw  folks  were  to 
form  a  line  back  of  this  grove  and  Allen's  grove  and  march 
south  while  those  living  west  of  us  within  twelve  or  fifteen  miles 
were  to  do  the  same,  and  those  about  Troy  Grove  were  to  march 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS.  45 

north  to  meet  at  a  little  grove  a  few  miles  northwest  of  where 
Meriden  now  stands.  All  were  expected  to  drive  the  wolves 
and  deer  towards  that  center  and  to  meet  about  noon  of  the  day 
agreed  on,  but  before  we  got  near  the  center  nearly  all  the  wolves 
and  deer  had  broken  through  the  circle  or  string  of  people.  The 
rules  were  for  only  one  man  in  ten  to  carry  a  gun  or  I  think  there 
would  have  been  much  more  careless  shooting.  I  only  saw  one 
deer  and  one  or  two  wolves  break  through  in  sight  of  where  I 
was,  but  I  saw  a  deer  killed  that  tried  to  get  out  of  the  ring. 
There  were  quite  a  number  of  shots  fired  at  it  or  the  one  that 
broke  out  of  the  circle.  I  did  not  carry  a  gun  but  let  N.  C. 
Allen  be  the  man  to  carry  a  gun  for  the  people  in  this  neighbor- 
hood. Many  deer  got  through  the  south  line  and  some  thought 
they  let  them  through  on  purpose  so  that  they  could  hunt  them 
in  Troy  Grove,  but  the  Troy  Grove  folks  said  that  it  was  because 
the  Paw  Paw  people  were  about  two  hours  behind  the  appointed 
time  to  meet  at  the  center  so  that  the  folks  on  that  side  thought 
they  were  not  coming  from  this  side  and  many  of  them  on  the 
south  side  went  home  and  left  their  ranks  so  thin  that  the  deer 
got  through  that  side  easily.  When  we  got  near  the  center 
where  we  were  to  meet,  there  was  only  one  wolf  in  the  circle 
and  many  shots  were  fired  at  it.  I  saw  old  Chief  Shabona  on 
his  pony  and  with  a  bow  and  arrows  run  near  the  wolf  and  put 
an  arrow  in  it  but  I  do  not  know  whether  the  wolf  had  been  hit 
by  balls  or  arrow  first.  There  were  many  shots  fired  at  it. 
Robert  said  he  could  hear  the  ball  pass  above  his  head  while  he 
was  behind  the  bank  of  the  little  creek.  I  saw  Shabona  show- 
ing the  bloody  arrow  and  thought  he  claimed  that  he  shot  the 
wolf  and  then  I  saw  Mr.  Morgan  of  Paw  Paw  talking  with 
Shabona  and  heard  Shabona  ask  Morgan  if  he  had  any  whisky 
and  Morgan  pulled  a  little  bottle  out  of  his  pocket.  He  took 
a  drink  and  then  handed  it  to  Shabona  and  he  drank  what  was 
left  in  the  bottle.  The  rifles  that  we  had  then  were  all  muzzle 
loading  and  as  there  were  only  a  small  part  of  the  men  and  boys 
present  that  carried  guns  I  think  that  fact  saved  some  lives  from 
careless  shooting.  There  were  very  few  if  any  settlers  on  the 
prairie  except  close  by  the  timber  at  that  time  in  this  part  of  the 
country.  I  am  not  sure  about  thfe  year,  but  I  think  that  it  was 
about  1846.  I  saw  two  or  three  other  Indians  there  with  rifles 


46 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 


SHABONA. 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS.  47 

but  was  told  that  Shabona  thought  his  eyes  were  not  good 
enough  to  use  a  rifle.  He  seemed  quite  expert  with  his  bow  and 
arrows  and  horse  for  an  old  man.  I  had  heard  that  before  the 
Indian  massacre  at  Indian  Creek  in  1832  that  Shabona  had 
ridden  ninety  miles  in  a  day  to  warn  the  whites  that  the  Indians 
were  coming  because  he  was  friendly  with  the  white  people. 
That  seems  a  long  ride  for  a  heavy  man  on  a  small  horse.  I 
suppose  that  the  Indian  ponies  were  all  rather  small,  but  father 
told  me  that  he  once  had  ridden  ninety  miles  in  a  day  when  he 
had  to  go  to  Glasgow,  Scotland,  as  a  witness.  He  had  to  be 
there  on  such  a  day  and  had  no  other  way  to  get  there  as  quickly, 
and  he  was  a  heavy  man.  I  would  suppose  father  had  a  much 
larger  horse  than  Shabona  had.  They  had  no  railroad  in  that 
part  of  Scotland  at  that  time,  near  Campbelltown,  at  least,  but 
perhaps  may  have  had  some  about  Glasgow  as  it  was  the  largest 
city  in  Scotland.  I  suppose,  too,  that  steamboats  were  not  very 
plenty  there  at  that  time.  Peter  Hunter,  that  married  one  of 
my  Smith  cousins,  told  me  that  he  missed  the  boat  he  was  to 
take  on  the  day  that  he  was  to  be  married  and  the  wedding  party 
had  met  but  as  he  could  not  get  there  till  the  next  day  and  they 
had  no  telegraph  or  telephones  then  some  of  the  wedding  party 
began  to  think  he  had  changed  his  mind  and  would  not  marry 
her  and  that  caused  them  to  say,  ''Just  as  I  expected."  But 
Hunter  said  he  got  there  the  next  day  and  was  married  all 
right.  As  he  was  not  a  farmer  in  Scotland  and  had  changed  his 
occupation,  I  suppose  some  thought  that  he  might  change  his 
mind  about  marrying  a  farmer's  daughter. 

But  I  will  tell  you  more  about  old  times  in  a  new  country. 
For  years  after  we  moved  here  all  stock  was  allowed  to  run  at 
large  so  that  they  might  get  the  best  grass  they  could  find  on 
land  that  was  not  occupied.  It  was  often  hard  to  find  cows  or 
horses  or  oxen  when  needed.  And  I  remember  that  our  hogs 
.were  away  quite  a  number  of  days  without  being  seen.  They 
were  allowed  to  run  at  large  as  we  had  little  or  no  corn  to  feed 
in  the  summer  till  the  new  crop  ripened.  We  often  fed  a  little 
bran  slop  to  try  to  keep  them  at  home.  Once  we  sowed  a  few 
acres  of  oats  and  peas  mixed  and  fenced  them  and  let  the  hogs 
in  as  soon  as  they  were  ripe.  Then  they  soon  harvested  them 
and  at  the  same  time  helped  fatten  them  a  little  before  the  corn 


48  ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 

got  fit  to  feed  them.  Hogs,  however,  were  hard  to  keep  out 
of  the  crops.  They  would  get  over  the  rail  fences  or  generally 
between  the  top  rail  and  about  six  bottom  rails,  as  our  fences 
were  generally  built.  I  remember  when  about  ten  years  old 
trying  to  drive  one  of  our  hogs  out  of  the  potato  lot  and  the  dog 
was  trying  to  help  me.  When  the  hog  tried  to  get  over  the 
fence  the  dog  would  pull  it  back  till  the  hog  got  so  angry  that  it 
turned  to  fight  both  the  dog  and  me  and  it  made  a  rush  at  me. 
I  had  a  stick,  however,  in  my  hand  and  knocked  it  down  or  I 
might  have  been  badly  bitten.  Soon  after  a  law  was  passed  for- 
bidding hogs  to  run  at  large.  And  I  remember  Robert  once 
took  a  long  walk  to  try  to  find  our  horses  and  he  told  of  the 
different  groves  that  he  had  been  at  and  counted ;  that  he  had 
walked  fifty-four  or  fifty-five  miles  that  day  but  did  not  find 
them.  As  all  the  early  settlers  lived  near  the  groves  he  had  to 
go  from  one  grove  to  another  to  inquire  if  any  stray  horses  had 
been  seen.  I  do  not  remember  where  he  found  the  horses  thai 
time,  but  at  another  time  one  of  our  mares  was  found  at  Shab- 
bona  Grove  the  next  day  after  she  left  home.  I  think  I  never 
walked  much  if  any  more  in  one  day  than  about  half  as  far  as 
Robert  did  that  day,  but  I  took  some  long  rides. 

Once  I  went  in  search  of  one  of  my  mares  and  also  one  be- 
longing to  my  sister  Jane.  I  did  not  find  either  on  the  first  day  that 
I  hunted  for  them.  I  did  not  find  Jane's  until  I  had  sent  for  some 
newspapers  in  which  the  law  required  all  stray  animals  taken  up, 
to  be  advertised.  In  one  of  them  I  found  such  a  mare  adver- 
tised near  Ottawa  and  Robert  and  Jane  went  there  and  got  the 
mare. 

Certain  men  used  to  make  a  business  of  hunting  strays  and 
charging  the  owners  for  finding  them.  I  heard  of  one  man  that 
offered  $10  to  find  his  horse.  Another  man  found  it  so  quickly 
that  the  owner  suspected  the  other  man  who  kept  travelers  or  a 
tavern  had  hidden  it.  The  owner  of  the  horse  had  stopped  over 
night  with  him  and  the  horse  either  got  out  of  the  stable  or  was 
taken  out.  I  heard  of  another  man  that  used  to  make  quite  a 
little  money  helping  people  out  of  a  slough  near  his  house  and 
was  much  displeased  when  some  neighbors  fixed  the  slough  so 
that  people  could  get  through  without  getting  stuck. 

My  Uncle  John  told  of  J.  D.  Rodgers  riding  his  horse  home 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS. 


49 


one  dark  night,  when  the  horse  went  so  close  to  the  fence  that 
his  clothes  caught  on  a  fence  stake  and  pulled  Mr.  Rodgers  off 
and  left  him  hanging  there  till  some  of  his  folks  went  and  helped 
him  down.  The  horse  had  gone  home  without  him.  Suspecting 
trouble,  his  folks  followed  the  road  back  till  they  found  him  still 


FIRST  FRAME  HOUSE  BUILT  AT  SMITH'S  GROVE— BUILT  BY  MR. 

NETTLSTON  AGAINST  A  LOG  HOUSE  THAT  WAS  TORN  DOWN 

BEFORE  THIS   PICTURE  WAS   TAKEN. 


hanging  by  his  clothes  on  the  fence  stake.  At  another  time 
while  I  was  riding  when  it  was  very  dark  I  rode  against  a  fence 
stake  that  would  have  hit  me  in  the  face  if  I  had  not  had  my 
arm  in  front  of  my  face.  As  the  track  is  generally  less  muddy 


50  ACCIDENTS  AND   DANGERS. 

close  to  a  fence,  horses  often  try  to  travel  very  close  to  the  fence 
to  avoid  the  mud  farther  out. 

Once  Alexander  and  I  went  to  the  Nettleton  place  intending 
to  go  swimming  with  their  boys,  but  as  it  looked  like  rain  we 
stopped  a  while  visiting  and  when  we  saw  the  rain  was  very 
close  we  all  started  to  go  in  the  house.  When  I  was  within 
about  ten  feet  of  the  house,  it  was  struck  by  lightning;  I  was 
knocked  down  and  the  next  I  heard  was  Mrs.  Nettleton  clapping 
her  hands  and  saying,  "He's  dead!  he's  dead!"  I  first  thought 
she  meant  me,  but  when  she  kept  saying  those  words  after  she 
met  me  at  the  door,  I  asked  her  who  was  dead  and  she  said, 
"Nathan,"  and  turned  around  and  went  back  in  the  room  where 
Nathan  was. 

The  room  was  so  filled  with  dust  or  ashes  that  had  been 
raised  from  the  fire  place  by  the  lightning,  that  at  first  we  could 
not  see  very  well.  Mr.  Nettleton  was  upstairs  trying  to  find 
the  hatchway  through  which  to  descend.  Some  of  them  asked 
me  to  open  it  and  let  their  father  down.  I  started  to  do  so, 
but  some  of  the  family  reached  there  first,  and  they  thought  I 
had  opened  the  hatchway  anyway. 

-,  Mr.  Nettleton  came  down.  I  remembered  hearing  that 
putting  water  on  people  who  had  been  struck  by  lightning  would 
sometimes  rivive  them.  I  told  them  to  try  it  and  they  bathed 
his  face  and  hands  with  water,  at  which  he  began  to  move  a 
little.  Then  they  got  some  one  to  go  to  South  PawPaw  for 
Doctor  Hunt,  the  nearest  doctor.  I  think  that  it  was  Sam 
Butler  who  went  and  when  the  doctor  came  I  think  he  bled 
Nathan.  I  think  his  mother  had  got  him  to  come  in  to  try  on  s. 
pair  of  pants  that  she  had  made  for  him.  She  had  been  lying 
on  a  bed  and  just  as  he  was  trying  them  on  she  saw  the  light- 
ning strike  him.  It  shocked  her  so  that  she  was  delirious  for  :\ 
short  time.  I  remember  she  started  off  in  the  rain  and  her 
folks  got  William,  her  boy,  and  me  to  go  and  try  and  get  her  to 
come  back,  but  she  kept  going  till  she  came  to  the  Ellsworth 
house  and  went  in  there.  She  did  not  know  the  folks  there  at 
first  but  kept  talking  as  if  they  were  strangers  and  saying  what 
a  fine  day  it  was  and  what  a  fine  home  they  had  there  on  the 
prairie.  Soon,  however,  she  clasped  her  hands  on  her  head  and 
said  to  Mrs.  Ellsworth,  "Oh,  I  know  you;  you  are  Mrs. 


ACCIDENTS  AND  DANGERS.  51 

worth,"  and  she  asked  if  she  had  heard  that  the  Almighty  God 
had  come  down  and  struck  Nathan  dead.  When  we  went  back 
to  her  home  we  examined  the  house  and  found  that  the  lightning 
had  split  the  floor  a  little  above  where  Nathan  had  stood  and 
there  were  three  little  holes  or  rips  in  his  hat.  I  think  the  light- 
ning had  made  them  and  had  gone  down  his  back.  There  was  a 
rafter  split,  too,  near  the  chimney,  and  it  was  thrown,  the  end 
of  it,  very  near  where  old  Mr.  Nettleton's  head  lay  while  he 
was  taking  a  nap  after  dinner. 

While  writing  of  damages  by  lightning  I  will  mention  a  few 
losses  of  my  own  and  others  by  lightning.  At  one  time  I  had 
a  fine  mare  killed  and  another  very  badly  hurt  while  in  the  pas- 
ture. I  think  that  one  had  been  standing  with  her  head  above 
the  other's  shoulder  and  perhaps  both  were  hit  by  the  same  flash 
as  the  flash  seemed  to  run  down  the  side  of  one's  head  and  down 
the  other's  front  legs.  She  had  a  little  hole  broken  through  the 
skin  just  above  the  shoulders.  She  must  have  been  killed  in- 
stantly. The  other  recovered,  but  always  carried  her  head  a 
little  to  one  side.  At  another  time  I  had  a  cow  and  two  large 
calves  killed  as  they  lay  close  by  a  strawstack.  At  another  time 
I  had  two  fine  young  mares  killed  close  by  a  cherry  tree  that  was 
struck.  This  occurred  the  same  night  that  Mr.  Wright's  and 
M.  Ramer's  houses  were  burned  by  lightning.  I  was  fortunate 
to  have  insurance  on  them  so  that  I  got  part  pay  for  all  those 
mentioned.  The  insurance  companies,  however,  would  not  agree 
to  pay  more  than  $100  on  any  one  animal.  But  Robert  was  not 
so  fortunate  in  getting  pay  for  a  large  steer  that  was  killed  by 
lightning.  The  reason  was  they  had  written  the  insurance  on 
cows  while  Robert  expected  that  all  of  his  cattle  were  insured. 
But  perhaps  I  should  have  written  about  Nathan  Nettleton's 
recovery  before  writing  so  much  about  the  effects  of  lightning 
at  other  times. 

I  think  that  he  was  able  to  work  again  in  a  few  weeks  but  a 
little  weak  and  sore  for  some  time.  He  used  to  change  work 
with  Robert  and  me  and  we  three  were  cutting  grain  with 
cradles  before  we  had  reapers.  One  morning  Robert  told 
Nathan  Nettleton  that  he  and  I  might  go  and  be  cradling  while 
he  finished  doing  the  chores,  after  which  he  would  bring  out  a 
pail  of  cold  water.  We  worked  too  fast  for  boys  of  our  age.  I 


52  ACCIDENTS  AND   DANGERS. 

think  I  was  only  a  little  more  than  fifteen  then  and  Nathan  a 
year  or  two  older.  Anyway  I  drank  so  much  cold  water  when 
Robert  brought  it  that  I  soon  got  chilly  and  began  to  vomit.  I 
went  to  the  house,  sick ;  soon  I  grew  delirious  and  thought  that 
I  was  cradling-  a  race  with  a  reaper  that  Mr.  Shoudy  had  bought. 
It  was  the  first  that  I  had  seen  and  I  thought  in  my  delirium 
that  I  was  going  as  fast  cradling  as  they  did  with  the  reaper  and 
that  I  was  cutting  a  wider  swath  than  they  did.  It  all  seemed 
so  real  to  me  that  I  told  Uncle  John  how  I  had  run  a  race  with  a 
reaper  and  cut  more  grain  than  they  did.  I  was  only  sick  a  few 
days  that  time.  Nathan  got  sick  the  next  day  and  Robert  got 
sick  the  first  day  after  I  began  work  again  but  he  had  finished 
cutting  our  grain  so  that  our  next  work  was  not  quite  as  heavy 
work  as  cradling  grain.  We  had  quite  a  lot  of  oats  to  bind  and 
shock  yet  and  only  father  and  I  to  do  it,  as  Robert  was  sick 
about  two  weeks  that  time.  I  think  that  Nathan  was  sick  a 
little  longer  than  I  was  that  time,  so  that  he  did  not  help  any 
more  that  harvest.  Sam  Butler  and  Wm.  Robinson  of  Earl- 
ville  had  bought  a  McCormick  reaper  that  same  year.  They 
said  they  cut  about  300  acres  of  grain  with  it.  As  we  used  to 
raise  both  winter  and  spring  wheat,  we  had  a  long  harvest,  some- 
times beginning  cutting  winter  wheat  about  the  first  of  July, 
then  oats  or  some  kind  of  spring  wheat,  that  would  not  shell,  as 
late  as  the  middle  of  August.  As  they  had  but  very  few  reapers 
in  this  part  of  the  country  they  would  run  them  fast  and  early 
and  late.  Next  year  Robert  bought  Mr.  Robinson's  share  of  that 
reaper  so  that  he  and  Butler  ran  it  afterwards  and  we  did  not 
cut  so  much  with  cradles  after  that  but  used  them  a  little.  Be- 
fore the  McCormick  reaper  was  worn  out,  we  bought  an  Ottawa 
combined  reaper  and  mower  and  that  was  the  first  mowing 
machine  I  had  ever  seen.  We  cut  a  great  lot  of  hay  with  it  but 
always  walked  while  mowing.  Of  course  it  was  not  near  as 
good  as  they  make  now,  but  it  was  much  easier  than  mowing 
with  scythes.  I  used  to  get  more  tired  mowing  than  cradling 
as  I  had  to  stoop  more  and  we  used  to  rake  the  hay  with  a 
home-made  rake  made  of  a  log  or  pole  with  a  lot  of  2-inch  teeth 
and  handles  that  we  had  to  lift  over  each  windrow  of  hay. 
Next  we  got  wooden  rakes  that  would  revolve  over  the  windrows 
and  they  worked  good  on  smooth  land,  but  we  had  to  mow  the 


ACCIDENTS  AND   DANGERS.  53 

most  of  our  hay  around  sloughs  or  wet  places  that  were  very 
rough  and  hard  to  rake  without  letting  the  rake  teeth  run  into 
the  ground  and  break.  Subsequently  we  got  a  spring  tooth  rake 
that  we  had  to  lift  over  each  windrow  but  it  was  a  poor  one  and 
the  teeth  were  soon  mostly  broken.  They  used  to  sell  spring 
tooth  rakes.  They  used  to  sell  also  steel  sulky  rakes  which  were 
so  very  high  that  few  would  buy  them.  I  think  that  they  charged 
$60.00  when  first  sold  near  here  and  I  paid  that  price  for  the 
first  two-horse  corn  planter  that  I  bought.  It  had  no  check 
rower  or  drill  attachment.  A  man  had  to  ride  on  it  to  drop  the 
corn  but  we  used  one  horse  corn  drills,  a  few  years  that  were 
much  cheaper.  I  think  that  D.  M.  Nettleton  paid  $60  for  the 
first  two-horse  riding  cultivator  that  he  bought.  He  was  too 
lame  to  walk  cultivating  after  being  wounded  in  the  army.  And 
binders  and  mowers  were  also  high  priced.  I  paid  $124  for  the 
first  McCormick  mower  that  I  got  before  they  got  in  very  com- 
mon use.  We  used  a  header  about  twenty  years.  But  we  had 
to  let  the  grain  get  so  ripe  and  dry  before  harvesting  that  it 
would  shell  off  badly  or  if  we  cut  it  when  it  was  not  dry  it  would 
mowburn  or  mold  in  the  stack.  Sometimes  I  would  cut  oats  or  flax 
with  the  header  and  let  it  run  on  the  ground  to  dry  before  stack- 
ing and  then  pick  it  up  with  forks  or  a  hayloader,  but  then  it  would 
shell  off  badly  and  perhaps  waste  enough  to  pay  for  harvest- 
ing it  in  some  other  way.  Our  wheat  we  always  let  run  directly 
into  header  boxes  and  stacked  it  at  once  and  I  generally  raised 
a  kind  of  wheat  that  was  called  Black  Sea  wheat  that  never 
shelled  off  badly  even  if  permitted  to  get  very  ripe.  The  head- 
ers we  always  run  in  front  of  the  horses  and  the  driver  stood 
behind  and  guided  the  machine  and  drove  the  four  or  five  horses. 
Once  while  driving  a  bee  got  on  one  of  the  horse's  feet 
and  the  horse  kicked  so  high  and  hard  that  I  think  it  might 
have  killed  me  if  I  had  not  seen  the  horse's  feet  coming  in  time 
to  dodge  back  so  that  his  feet  only  reached  me.  I  knew  a  man 
at  Paw  Paw  that  was  killed  while  driving  a  hay  press  by  being 
hit  in  the  bowels  by  the  end  of  the  evener  or  whiffletree  when 
something  broke  and  let  one  end  of  the  evener  fly  back.  Some- 
times the  man  that  was  driving  in  the  header  box  would  let  his 
team  go  too  fast  for  the  header  so  that  if  the  man  or  men  that 
were  loading  got  behind  the  header  spout  they  might  get  pushed 


54  ACCIDENTS  AND   DANGERS. 

or  scraped  out  of  the  header  box.  Once  Wm.  Hopps  was  load- 
ing in  the  header  box  and  was  standing  behind  the  header  spout 
when  his  driver  let  his  wagon  get  too  far  forward  and  pushed 
William  out  of  the  header  box  and  left  him  hanging  by  one  foot 
caught  between  the  header  spout  and  box  but  it  did  not  hurt  him 
badly  but  might  easily  have  broken  his  leg.  And  at  another 
time  while  I  was  cutting  grain  for  my  sister  Jane  her  youngest 
boy  was  riding  with  the  driver  in  the  header  box  and  while 
working  on  a  side  hill  they  run  the  upper  wheel  on  a  large  stone 
that  tipped  the  wagon  over  and  threw  the  driver  and  boy  quite 
a  distance  down  hill  and  hurt  the  boy's  arm  so  that  he  cried  hard 
and  I  feared  that  his  arm  might  be  broken,  but  felt  of  it  and 
found  no  bones  broken.  But  years  after  that  Wm.  Hopps  had 
his  neck  broken  by  falling  off  a  load  of  hay.  He  had  a  hole  in 
his  head  above  one  eye  that  I  think  must  have  been  made  by 
pulling  the  pitchfork  off  with  him.  I  suppose  that  the  pitchfork 
wound  had  been  fatal  even  if  his  neck  had  not  been  broken.  He 
had  been  standing  on  the  load  of  hay  when  one  of  the  wagon 
wheels  struck  a  pole  or  fence  post  that  tipped  him  and  some 
hay  off  the  wagon. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

More    About    Prairie    Fire    and   Bad    Roads 

But  I  think  that  I  will  tell  about  some  more  prairie  fires. 
The  year  that  I  lived  at  the  Hopp's  place,  Hopps  promised  to 
furnish  a  tavern  keeper  at  Wheeling,  a  lot  of  hay  as  there  was 
plenty  of  wild  or  native  grass  on  government  land  a  mile  or  two 
south  of  his  farm.  That  was  in  1842.  So  he  and  a  hired  man 
mowed  a  lot  and  I  went  with  them  and  helped  put  up  a  few 
stacks,  I  think  about  twenty  tons,  but  he  did  not  burn  around  the 
stacks  or  plow  around  them  before  some  one  might  begin  to  start 
fires.  When  they  began,  he  took  his  hired  man  and  me  to  try  to 
burn  around  the  stacks  without  plowing  any  furrows  or  making 
other  provisions  to  prevent  fire  and  when  burning  on  the  windy 
side  of  the  stacks,  the  fire  run  so  fast  that  we  could  not  whip  it 
out  and  his  own  fire  burned  the  stacks  before  the  other  fire  got 
near  us.  He  had  raked  the  loose  hay  off  the  stubble  on  the 
windy  side  of  the  stacks,  thinking  that  it  might  be  easily  whipped 
out  where  there  was  so  little  to  burn ;  but  it  seemed  to  run 
faster  where  there  was  but  little  to  burn  and  Hopps  said  we 
would  have  to  let  it  go.  He  thought  that  there  was  no  use  to  try 
to  fight  the  fire  any  longer  and  we  all  stepped  back  from  the 
fire.  I  felt  that  if  we  had  fought  it  a  little  longer  before  step- 
ping back  that  perhaps  we  might  have  saved  the  hay  as  it  burned 
much  slower  when  burning  the  scattered  hay  close  by  the  stacks, 
but  of  course  we  would  have  needed  to  be  close  by  and  work 
fast  to  do  any  good  as  it  was  only  a  few  seconds  burning  across 
the  scattered  hay.  When  it  reached  the  stacks  they  blazed  up 
instantly.  Brother  Robert  tried  burning  around  one  of  our  hay 
stacks  alone  in  the  same  way  without  furrows  or  anything  to 
help  stop  the  fire  and  he  burned  the  stack.  At  another  time 
father  and  I  were  husking  corn  when  I  saw  a  prairie  fire  coming 
toward  some  of  our  hay  stacks.  I  knew  that  my  only  chance  to 

55 


56  PRAIRIE  FIRE  AND  BAD  ROADS. 

save  the  hay  would  be  to  put  the  fire  out  where  a  wagon  track 
crossed  the  narrow  slough  between  two  pieces  of  plowing,  so  I 
ran  there  and  met  the  fire  just  as  it  began  to  burn  across  the 
wagon  track.  T  got  it  whipped  out  before  it  got  a  start  but  I 
think  if  I  had  been  a  minute  later  that  I  could  not  have  whipped 
it  out,  as  the  wind  was  blowing  directly  up  the  slough  towards 
the  stacks.  Dan  Nettleton  was  only  a  small  boy  then  and  was 
watching  his  cattle  in  their  corn  stalks.  He  got  cold  and  started 
a  fire  which  got  away  from  him.  In  trying  to  put  it  out  he 
did  not  know  where  to  work  to  do  any  good.  I  think  about  the 
fall  of  1848  that  we  had  another  fire  run  through  this  grove. 
We  had  been  trying  to  keep  the  fire  out  so  that  the  young  timber 
would  grow  as  there  were  hardly  any  young  trees  in  this  grove 
when  we  came  here.  I  suppose  the  fires  had  run  through  it  for 
ages  so  that  the  young  trees  would  get  killed  before  they  were 
large  enough  to  stand  a  fire.  We  had  furrows  plowed  to  burn 
between  but  were  waiting  for  a  calm  day  so  that  we  could 
handle  the  fire  more  safely.  But  one  day  it  looked  so  smoky  I 
thought  there  must  be  a  fire  west  of  us  and  I  went  to  Xettleton's 
and  told  them  that  I  thought  we  had  better  try  to  burn  between 
the  furrows.  Mr.  Nettleton  and  his  boys  went  to  the  west  end 
of  the  grove  with  me,  intending  to  burn  between  the  furrows, 
but  as  there  was  no  fire  in  sight  and  a  strong  west  wind  was 
blowing  they  concluded  they  would  not  try  it  that  day  as  they 
feared  our  own  fire  might  get  away  from  us  and  run  through 
the  grove.  However,  as  it  kept  getting  more  smoky,  I  felt  sure 
that  the  fire  must  be  near  and  I  went  to  the  Nettleton's  again ; 
but  by  that  time  the  fire  had  already  got  past  our  furrows  and 
the  Nettletons  had  to  plow  around  their  stacks  and  stables  to 
keep  the  fire  from  them.  I  helped  them  to  get  a  plow  ready 
and  they  hitched  their  oxen  to  it  to  do  the  plowing.  I  came 
home  but  the  fire  got  here  as  soon  as  I  did  and  was  burning 
close  to  our  hog  yard.  Robert  had  sent  N.  C.  Allen  here  to  let 
them  out  as  there  were  considerable  in  it.  Their  yard  was  not 
large  and  perhaps  they  might  have  got  singed  if  Allen  or  I  had 
not  got  there  as  soon  as  we  did.  Robert  was  plowing  around 
some  of  Allen's  stacks  or  stables  at  the  time  but  they  could  not 
keep  the  fire  out  of  the  grove.  However,  he  did  not  get  enough 
plowed  to  save  their  hay.  They  did  not  have  much  as  they  had 


PRAIRIE  FIRE  AND  BAD  ROADS.  57 

very  little  stock  at  that  time,  but  I  think  they  lost  all  the  hay 
they  had  put  up. 

I  think  that  I  will  tell  about  some  of  my  experiences  on  bad 
roads.  Once  Nathan  Nettleton  and  I  were  taking  two  loads  of 
potatoes  to  Peru  to  sell.  When  we  got  near  where  Mendota 
now  stands  we  came  to  a  bad  slough  where  we  found  a  neigh- 
bor's load  of  potatoes  stuck  in  the  mud.  We  hitched  both  teams 
to  each  of  our  wagons  and  finally  got  across  all  right.  Then 
Mr.  Voras  got  us  to  hitch  our  teams  on  his  wagon  as  he  said  his 
team  would  not  pull  good  again  in  the  mud  because  they  had 
tried  it  enough  before.  When  we  tried  it  one  of  Nettleton's 
horses  got  down  in  the  mud  where  one  of  Voras'  horses  had 
floundered  and  he  tramped  it  so  it  was  very  soft ;  so  Nettleton 
took  his  team  off  and  would  not  try  it  again.  I  then  got  the 
men  to  lift  on  the  wheels  and  pulled  the  wagon  across  the  slough 
with  one  team.  Yoras  had  a  man  with  him  and  they  were  carry- 
ing some  of  the  potatoes  across  the  slough  but  it  was  very  slow 
work  because  they  had  but  one  bag  to  carry  the  potatoes  in. 
They  had  to  pick  them  up  with  their  hands  and  put  them  in  the 
bag.  So  Nettleton  and  I  started  and  left  Mr.  Voras  and  his 
man  to  pick  up  the  potatoes  they  had  carried  across  the  slough. 
I  think  that  we  all  got  to  Peru  without  much  more  trouble.  We 
used  to  try  to  get  bags  enough  to  hold  the  whole  of  our  load? 
so  that  if  we  got  stuck  we  could  unload  part  or  all  of  it. 

Once  while  going  to  Chicago  with  Uncle  John  with  two 
loads  of  wheat  one  of  the  horses  that  he  drove  was  blind,  and 
had  been  used  on  his  tread  power  so  much  cutting  shingles  that 
she  was  better  at  that  than  pulling  loads  in  the  mud.  Well,  we 
got  stuck  in  the  mud  and  we  carried  part  of  his  load  across  the 
slough.  He  pulled  the  soles  off  his  boots  carrying  bags  of  wheat 
across  the  muddy  place  and  his  feet  were  so  tender  that  he  could 
not  carry  any  more.  I  do  not  remember  whether  I  carried  any 
more  after  he  had  to  quit,  but  I  think  I  carried  a  few  bags  of 
my  own  load  across  because  I  feared  I  would  get  stuck  also.  1 
had  all  the  bags  to  put  back  in  the  wagons  without  his  help  and 
he  had  to  go  the  rest  of  the  way  barefoot  to  Chicago  before  he 
could  get  shoes  or  boots.  Whenever  he  would  drive  on  a  plank 
bridge,  his  blind  mare  seemed  to  think  that  she  was  on  the  tread 
horse-power  and  immediately  she  would  begin  to  step  up  and 


58  PRAIRIE  FIRE  AND  BAD  ROADS. 

down  without  pulling  forward.  When  at  last  we  got  withi» 
two  or  three  miles  of  Chicago  the  road  was  sandy  and  the  loads 
pulled  so  hard  that  Uncle  John  thought  his  blind  mare  was  too 
tired  to  go  further.  He  got  me  to  leave  about  one-third  of  my 
load  with  him  and  go  and  sell  the  rest  of  my  load  and  then  come 
back  to  help  him  in  with  the  rest  of  the  wheat  after  his  team  had 
a  good  long  rest.  We  did  so  and  met  the  same  man  that  I  had 
sold  the  first  load  to  and  he  thought  that  I  still  had  the  same  load 
and  said,  "Aren't  you  the  man  that  I  bought  a  load  of  already?" 
and  I  told  him  I  was  and  he  asked  me  if  that  was  the  same  load. 
I  explained  how  it  was  and  we  sold  him  our  loads  and  Uncle 
John  bought  some  shoes  and  did  some  other  business.  Then  we 
came  home  without  any  more  mishaps  that  time.  Another  time 
he  and  T  got  caught  in  rain  before  getting  near  Chicago  and  we 
had  to  wear  our  wet  clothes  till  they  got  dry. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Marketing    the    Produce    in    Chicago — Sua- 

ganash  Tavern  Burns — Assessing  in 

William  Creek  Township 

Father  and  Robert  had  hauled  some  loads  of  wheat  to  Chi- 
cago in  1843  anc'  only  £°t  4°  cents  per  bushel  for  it.  We  heard 
of  a  man  that  lived  near  where  Earlville  now  stands  that  raised 
a  few  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  before  that  date.  He  hired  it 
threshed  for  4  cents  per  bushel  and  then  hired  teams  to  take  it  to 
Chicago  for  20  cents  per  bushel  and  all  that  he  could  get  offered 
for  it  was  25  cents  per  bushel,  so  he  let  it  go  at  that  price  as  he 
had  no  chance  to  store  it  or  pay  for  hauling  there,  till  he  sold  it. 

I  never  had  to  take  less  than  60  cents  per  bushel  for  wheat 
after  I  began  to  haul  there  for  father  or  Robert  as  we  all  worked 
together  till  Robert  married  in  1856.  But  I  took  a  load  of  pota- 
toes to  Chicago  and  could  not  get  an  offer  for  the  load.  I 
peddled  them  out  a  few  bushels  in  a  place  for  30  cents  per  bushel. 

Robert,  however,  had  got  as  high  as  $1.25  per  bushel  for  a 
few  bags  of  potatoes  that  he  took  there  with  a  load  of  wheat. 
The  grain  houses  there  were  all  small  and  built  close  to  the  river 
at  that  time  and  once  when  I  sold  grain  we  had  to  pull  the  bags 
of  wheat  to  the  upper  floor  with  a  rope,  a  few  bags  at  a  time. 
The  larger  grain  houses  had  one-horse  tread-powers  to  elevate 
the  wheat.  We  generally  took  about  2j/2  days  to  go  to  Chicago 
with  loads. 

We  traded  a  little  and  stayed  in  the  city  over  night.  Then  we 
came  home  in  two  days.  Once  while  stopping  there  in  the  after- 
noon, I  took  a  tramp  around  the  city  from  lake  to  lake  as  I  had  a 
curiosity  to  see  the  size  of  the  city.  Of  course  it  was  small  then 
compared  with  later  years  and  I  think  that  I  found  it  quite  sandy 
about  all  the  way  around  the  city  and  but  little  grass  on  the 
ground.  I  passed  a  slaughter  house  that  smelled  very  bad  but  a 
few  miles  southwest  of  Chicago.  There  used  to  be  heavy  slough 

59 


00  CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING. 

grass  about  all  the  way  across  the  flats  to  the  Desplaines  river 
and  I  have  driven  across  it  when  it  was  entirely  covered  with  ice 
and  when  I  could  not  teli  by  the  looks  whether  the  water  was 
deep  or  shallow.  In  many  places  there  was  no  grass  sticking 
through  the  ice  and  I  feared  that  the  ice  might  break  and  let  the 
sled  and  horses  down  deeper  than  they  could  pull  through.  Some- 
times there  was  no  house  or  person  in  sight  but  on  a  clear  day  we 
could  see  clear  across  these  flats.  But  it  looks  very  different  now 
as  we  cross  those  flats  on  the  Burlington  R.  R.  We  see  fine 
dwelling  houses  and  beautiful  lawns  for  many  miles.  We  gener- 


ROBEUT  SMITH,  FROM  A  PHOTO  TAKEN  IN  1856. 

ally  took  oats  enough  along  to  last  our  horses  till  we  got  home. 
We  could  get  stable  room  and  hay  for  the  team  over  night  and 
supper  and  bed  and  breakfast  for  50  cents  at  the  country  taverns 
and  75  cents  for  the  same  fare  in  the  city  or  towns.  But  I  once 
got  the  same  fare  in  Chicago  for  50  cents  and  that  was  on  Lake 
street  and  not  far  from  the  lake.  I  used  to  enjoy  such  trips 
when  the  weather  and  roads  were  good,  especially  when  with 
good  company.  One  fall  we  had  considerable  wheat  to  haul  and 
William  Shoudy  offered  to  haul  some  to  Chicago  for  us  for  16 
cents  per  bushel.  We  let  him  haul  2  or  3  loads  and  I  went  with 


CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING.  61 

him  each  time  and  once  coming  home  I  had  a  barrel  of  salt  in  the 
wagon.  We  drove  through  a  creek  about  4  miles  west  of  Aurora, 
and  when  I  drove  up  the  bank  it  was  so  steep  the  barrel  rolled 
back  with  such  force  that  it  knocked  the  end  board  and  rod  out 
and  let  the  barrel  roll  into  the  creek  and  we  had  to  get  into  the 
muddy  water  to  get  the  salt  out  and  into  the  wagon  again,  but 
we  only  laughed  at  that  mishap.  The  salt  was  all  colored  but 
it  answered  for  salting  stock.  I  had  bought  a  large  bunch  of 
matches  and  the  jolting  of  the  wagon  set  them  on  fire,  but  I  saw 
them  in  time  to  save  part  of  the  matches  and  keep  them  from 
burning  anything  else.  At  another  time  Nathan  Nettleton, 
William  Shoudy  and  I  went  to  Chicago  with  three  loads  of 
wheat.  Nathan  was  not  well  when  we  started  and  he  kept  get- 
ting worse  so  that  I  had  to  sell  and  unload  his  wheat  and  take 
care  of  his  team.  I  think  he  had  a  doctor  and  took  medicine  but 
he  came  back  with  us  next  morning  until  we  got  two  miles  west 
of  Naperville.  There  we  all  stayed  with  Mr.  David  Rogers  over 
night  and  Nathan  got  a  doctor  who  thought  it  was  not  safe  for 
him  to  ride  home  until  he  got  better,  so  he  let  me  take  his  team 
home  and  his  father  took  his  sister,  Maria,  there  to  take  care  of 
him  until  he  got  better.  It  was  the  dysentery  that  he  had.  He 
afterwards  married  my  sister,  Jane,  and  his  sister  Maria  married 
O.  D.  Edwards. 

There  was  a  fire  in  Chicago  the  night  that  Nathan  Nettleton 
stayed  there  with  me.  Shoudy  knew  a  man  that  was  stopping 
at  a  tavern  that  was  burning  and  he  asked  me  to  go  with  him 
to  see  that  he  got  his  team  and  wagon  out  all  right.  We  took 
a  few  horses  out  of  the  burning  barn  and  found  Shoudy 's  friend 
and  helped  him  to  get  his  team  and  wagon  to  another  tavern. 
Then  we  came  back  to  the  fire  and  worked  on  the  fire  engines 
or  pumps  which  were  worked  by  about  10  or  12  men.  The  fire- 
men often  asked  for  help  to  run  the  pumps  or  tear  away  parts 
of  burning  buildings.  I  think  the  tavern  that  burned  was  called 
the  Sauganash.  There  were  a  few  other  buildings  besides  the 
tavern  and  horse  barn  that  burned  and  there  were  a  few  horses 
and  two  hogs  burned  in  another  part  of  the  barn  that  we  did  not 
know  about  when  we  went  there  to  help  get  horses  out. 

William  Shoudy  said  that  when  he  was  in  Chicago  at  an- 
other time  he  saw  a  store  burning  and  offered  to  help  carry  out 


62  CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING. 

goods  but  they  would  not  allow  any  carried  out  because  if  they 
burned  they  would  get  paid  for  them;  but  if  taken  out  and  stolen 
they  would  get  nothing  for  the  goods  but  he  said  that  there  was 
a  good  chance  to  have  taken  out  many  of  the  goods  as  it  was 
burning  slowly  in  the  back  part  of  the  store  and  that  makes  me 
think  of  the  fire  trusts  that  the  courts  are  investigating  now.  N. 


SAUGANASH    TAVERN. 

C.  Allen  had  quite  an  experience  taking  a  load  of  wheat  to  Chi- 
cago with  ox  teams.  I  think  he  carried  his  own  food  and  grain 
for  his  oxen  but  he  generally  let  the  oxen  eat  grass  by  the  road 
side  where  he  stopped  at  night.  He  slept  in  or  under  his  wagon 
and  he  overtook  some  men  taking  a  lot  of  cattle  to  Chicago,  one 
of  whom  had  dropped  a  pocketbook  with  considerable  money  in 
it.  Inasmuch  as  they  could  not  find  it  along  the  road  they 
thought  perhaps  Allen  had  picked  up  the  money  and  they  got  a 
search  warrant  and  I  think  stopped  him  about  two  days,  search- 
ing his  clothes  and  bed  quilts.  They  even  emptied  his  wheat  bags 
and  then  put  the  wheat  back  in  the  bags  and  he  said  when  they 
had  nearly  all  of  them  emptied  and  searched,  they  told  him  that 
if  he  would  say  that  the  money  was  not  in  the  other  bags  they 
would  quit  looking  for  it  and  let  him  go  but  he  said  as  they  had 
so  nearly  finished  they  might  as  well  examine  the  other  bags  and 
then  they  would  feel  more  sure  that  he  did  not  have  their  money 


CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING.  63 

Allen  also  told  me  there  were  two  other  men  who  passed  in  a 
buggy  but  as  the  tavern  keeper  told  the  men  that  lost  the  money 
they  were  honest  men  and  would  not  keep  their  money  they  let 
them  go  without  searching  them  and  perhaps  they  may  have 
found  the  money  and  kept  it. 

I  think  I  will  mention  another  case  where  an  innocent  man 
was  arrested  on  suspicion. 

Two  of  the  Briggs  boys  and  their  brother-in-law,  a  Mr. 
Anderson,  had  enlisted  in  the  Civil  War  in  1865.  Each  received 
$400.00  in  Lee  county  bonds,  and  some  other  bounty  from  this 
township  (Willow  Creek). 

The  bonds  were  given  as  a  reward  or  inducement  to  enlist, 
so  that  the  government  would  not  have  to  draft  men  into  the 
army  from  this  place. 

Briggs  sold  one  of  these  bonds  to  his  brother  and  one  to 
other  parties  as  he  had  to  use  some  money  before  leaving  home, 
so  that  he  had  only  two  of  the  Lee  county  bonds  left.  He  and 
Mr.  David  Anderson  left  their  bonds  with  Mrs.  Anderson  and 
her  sister,  but  I  have  forgotten  whether  or  not  their  mother  was 
living  there  then,  but  their  brother,  John  Briggs,  was  living  there 
or  near  them.  After  that  Mr.  Anderson  and  Sylvester  and  Adin 
Briggs  and  N.  A.  and  Ben  Xettleton  and  Robert  Wells  and  others 
went  into  camp  in  February,  1865,  near  Chicago.  Both  Adin 
Briggs  and  N.  A  Nettletcn  were  taken  sick  with  pneumonia  or 
lung  fever  before  leaving  that  camp.  N.  A.  Nettleton  got  a  fur- 
lough arid  came  home  and  died  April  i4th ;  about  the  same  time 
Lincoln  was  assassinated.  Adin  Briggs'  wife  went  into  camp 
and  took  care  of  him  till  he  got  well  and  then  she  came  home 
and  was  taken  sick  with  the  same  disease  that  her  husband  had 
been  sick  with.  He  then  got  a  furlough  and  came  home  to  take 
care  of  his  wife.  She  died  and  he  then  left  his  bonds  and  $200.00 
in  money  with  me  for  safe  keeping.  He  never  asked  for  a  re- 
ceipt for  either  bonds  or  money  and  when  he  came  home  from 
the  army  he  said  that  he  had  forgotten  whether  he  had  left  $100 
or  $200.  And  another  man  that  enlisted  from  this  township  sent 
me  a  few  of  his  Lee  county  bonds  from  Ohio  to  sell  for  him  as 
he  wanted  to  use  the  money  in  Ohio.  I  think  that  all  those  Lee 
county  bonds  were  of  $100.00  denomination  and  drew  ten  per 
cent  interest.  One  day  when  Mrs.  Anderson  and  her  sister  were 


64  CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING. 

from  home  it  rained.  An  agent  was  passing  their  house  at  the 
time  and  went  into  the  house  and  I  suppose  he  stayed  there  till 
it  stopped  raining.  When  the  women  came  home  they  knew  that 
some  one  had  been  in  the  house.  They  found  that  Anderson  had 
$200.00  more  bonds  than  their  brother.  They  knew  that  they 
received  the  same  amount,  but  they  did' not  know  that  their 
brother  had  sold  any.  Consequently  they  thought  some  one  had 
stolen  them.  At  once  they  had  the  agent  arrested.  Of  course 
they  found  no  bonds  and  the  women  and  their  brother,  John, 
thought  they  had  been  lost  till  I  saw  one  of  the  women  and  told 
her  I  had  one  of  the  bonds  that  they  were  looking  for  and  that 
her  brother  had  sold  both  bonds  and  that  she  had  all  that  be- 
longed to  Sylvester,  her  brother.  The  Lee  county  bonds  sold  as 
low  as  $85.00  per  $100.00,  although  drawing  10  per  cent  interest 
and  the  school  trustees  got  me  to  buy  $1,500.00  for  the  school 
fund  as  I  was  township  treasurer  then  and  had  enough  school 
money  on  hand  at  that  time  that  was  to  be  kept  at  interest.  I 
had  bought  about  that  amount  of  Lee  county  bonds  for  myself 
before  the  price  got  below  par  and  the  assessors  assessed  such 
bonds  at  par  value  when  not  in  the  hands  of  the  soldiers.  They 
were  not  assessed  while  held  by  the  soldiers  and  at  that  time  they 
were  assessing  other  property  at  only  one-fifth  of  what  it  would 
sell  for  so  that  I  had  to  pay  5  or  6  times  as  high  taxes  on  my 
Lee  county  bonds  as  on  other  property.  Taxes  were  high  in  the 
school  district  that  year  and  it  took  nearly  all  the  interest  to  pay 
the  taxes  that  year  on  those  bonds.  But  since  that  year  I  think 
the  assessors  have  assessed  all  property  more  nearly  equal  accord- 
ing to  value.  I  was  elected  assessor  and  assessed  the  township 
several  times,  but  of  course  could  not  satisfy  every  person, 
especially  those  that  had  new  farms  and  were  putting  new  im- 
provements on  their  farms.  I  supposed  it  was  my  duty  to  assess 
the  farms  according  to  their  value  at  the  time  I  assessed  them. 
Some  seemed  to  think  they  were  assessed  too  high  as  they  had 
to  pay  much  higher  taxes  than  when  they  had  little  improvements 
on.  But  I  think  the  equalization  board  never  lowered  my  assess- 
ment. On  the  contrary  they  raised  many  others  to  make  them 
about  equally  as  high  as  I  had  assessed  this  township.  Of  course 
none  of  the  land  or  other  property  was  assessed  for  near  as  much 
as  it  would  sell  for  as  the  assessors  had  agreed  to  assess  all  prop- 


CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING. 


65 


erty  at  one-third  or  one-fourth  of  what  it  would  sell  for  and  they 
did  so  yet  in  1912. 

But  I  will  tell  a  little  of  my  experience  in  bad  roads  while 
assessing  this  township,  Willow  Creek.  Once  I  tried  to  drive 
north  from  where  Scarboro  now  is  to  the  north  township  line.  I 
got  into  mud  and  water  nearly  three  feet  deep  and  the  team 


DAVID    SMITH   AT    70    YEARS   OF   AGE. 

would  not  go  further.  I  had  to  unhitch  and  take  the  wagon  box 
off,  then  uncouple  the  wagon  and  get  the  wheels  loose.  I  then 
turned  two  wheels  at  a  time.  Next  I  put  the  wagon  tongue  on 
the  south  end,  replaced  the  wagon  box  and  seat,  all  the  while 
working  in  the  mud  and  water  nearly  three  feet  deep.  I  then 
hitched  the  team  on  again  and  started  south,  but  I  soon  came  to 


66  CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING. 

a  plank  bridge.  This  was  so  high  above  the  mud  that  the  team 
would  not  pull  the  wagon  onto  the  bridge  so  I  unhitched  the 
team  again  and  got  it  on  the  bridge.  I  then  tied  the  evener  to 
the  end  of  the  wagon  tongue  and  hitched  the  team  to  the  whiffle- 
trees  and  pulled  the  wagon  on  the  bridge.  Then  the  martengale 
I  had  tied  the  eavener  to  the  tongue  with,  broke.  Fortunately 
the  wagon  did  not  roll  back  into  the  mud  so  the  horses  had  no 
trouble  starting  when  I  hitched  on  to  it  again  and  started  for 
home  with  my  wet  and  muddy  clothes  on  and  without  assessing 
any  more  that  day.  At  another  time  I  was  assessing  along  the 
north  side  of  the  township  when  I  came  to  a  bad  slough.  I  saw 
some  men  at  work  near  it  and  I  asked  if  I  could  drive  through 
it,  but  they  did  not  seem  to  understand.  I  tried  to  make  myself 
understood  but  they  showed  no  signs  of  having  any  idea  of  what 
I  wanted  to  know.  I  was  suspicious  that  they  wanted  me  to  find 
out  how  bad  it  was  so  that  I  might  use  my  influence  to  get  that 
slough  bridged  as  soon  as  possible  because  they  did  not  like  to 
have  people  driving  through  their  fields  as  they  had  to  or  else  go 
a  few  miles  around  on  another  road.  I  supposed  they  were  Nor- 
wegians and  perhaps  had  not  been  in  this  country  long  enough 
to  understand  what  I  wanted.  I  sometimes  had  to  get  some  of 
the  children  to  interpret  while  assessing  some  of  the  Norwegians, 
especially  if  it  were  women  I  talked  to.  They  did  not  learn  Eng- 
lish as  soon  as  the  men  or  children.  I  saw  tracks  across  the 
slough  so  I  concluded  to  try  it.  I  think  if  the  team  had  not  been 
quick  and  spry,  they  would  have  got  stuck  so  fast  somebody 
would  have  been  needed  to  haul  us  out.  As  it  was  they  sank 
about  four  feet  at  every  jump.  I  got  across  but  would  not  like 
to  try  it  again  for  the  price  of  a  horse. 

I  have  had  both  cattle  and  horses  stuck  in  places  no  worse 
than  that  slough  and  one  of  the  horses  two  years  old  and  some  of 
the  cattle  were  dead  before  I  found  them.  I  think  the  tracks  I 
saw  across  that  slough  were  made  while  it  had  been  frozen  in 
the  winter.  I  remember,  too,  while  father  had  but  two  oxen, 
that  one  of  them  got  stuck  in  a  slough  near  home  so  that  he  had 
to  send  to  Paw  Paw  to  get  a  man  with  oxen  and  a  long  rope  to 
pull  it  out.  I  have  had  to  haul  one  of  my  horses  and  a  number 
of  cattle  out  of  that  same  slough  and  other  sloughs  both  for  my- 
self and  my  sister,  Jane  Nettleton,  since  I  have  been  running  this 


CHICAGO,  SAUGANASH  TAVERN,  ASSESSING.  67 

farm.  One  of  her  cows  I  pulled  out  three  times,  then  I  tried  to 
haul  it  home  to  my  place  and  kept  her  out  of  the  mud  till  the 
sloughs  got  more  solid,  but  she  got  off  the  stone  boat  to  get  back 
with  the  other  cattle  so  we  drove  her  to  my  place  and  kept  her 
here  till  she  had  a  calf  and  she  got  along  nicely.  One  night  about 
bed  time,  I  went  to  look  to  see  if  my  own  cattle  were  all  right  as 
I  knew  that  there  was  a  very  muddy  place  in  the  yard  where  the 
cattle  had  tramped  across  the  slough  very  often.  I  found  one 
stuck  in  the  mud  and  I  got  Ed.  Hopps,  then  living  here  when  he 
was  a  boy,  to  come  and  we  hitched  up  a  team  and  pulled  the 
heifer  to  a  dry  place,  where  we  rubbed  the  mud  off  from  her  and 
put  straw  around  her  to  try  to  keep  her  comfortable,  but  the 
other  cattle  soon  found  her  and  began  hooking  her  and  made  a 
great  bellowing.  I  kept  them  off  with  a  pitchfork,  then  I  got 
Ed.  Hopps  to  keep  the  cattle  from  hooking  her  while  I  got  one 
of  the  small  doors  off  the  cow  barn  for  a  stone  boat.  She  was 
too  exhausted  to  walk ;  the  cattle  had  rolled  her  back  into  the 
mud  again,  so  we  put  her  on  the  stone  boat  and  hauled  her  into 
my  wagon  shed  and  kept  her  there  till  she  got  well. 


CHAPTER    X. 

Drainage,  Hog  Cholera,  Dehorning  the  Cattle 

Perhaps  it  may  seem  foolish  to  write  so  much  about  such 
incidents,  but  as  I  am  confined  to  the  house  with  what  the  doctor 
calls  rheumatic  gout,  and  some  of  my  relatives  have  asked  me  to 
write  some  incidents  of  my  early  recollections,  and  as  I  get  tired 
or  drowsy  reading,  I  write  for  a  change  and  I  write  entirely  from 
memory  about  whatever  I  think  of  at  the  time  of  writing,  al- 
though some  of  the  incidents  mentioned  in  the  preceding  pages 
happened  more  than  76  years  ago  they  still  seem  fresh  in  my 
memory,  however.  I  had  written  more  than  30  pages  about  two 
years  ago,  but  they  were  mislaid  and  I  did  not  find  them  till  I 
had  written  many  of  the  same  incidents  lately.  Now,  in  March, 
1913,  I  think  of  another  incident  that  amused  me  a  little  when  a 
man  that  was  pressing  hay  for  me  had  one  of  his  horses  stuck  in 
the  slough  in  my  pasture.  When  he  found  his  horse  there  Wm. 
Hopps  and  I  went  to  help  him  get  it  out.  He  began  to  swear  and 
said  I  might  have  told  him  there  was  such  a  place  in  my  pasture  so 
that  he  would  not  have  left  his  horse  there.  But  I  began  to  joke 
him  and  tell  him  that  he  had  better  be  saying  his  prayers  than 
swear ;  that  we  might  all  of  us  sink.  Then  we  carried  tough  hay 
and  made  a  path  for  his  horse  to  walk  on.  At  the  same  time  we 
helped  the  horse  to  get  on  the  hay  and  he  led  it  along  the  hay 
patch  and  got  it  out  without  hauling  it  out  as  I  had  to  haul  one 
of  my  horses  from  the  same  slough.  But  my  horse  had  sunk 
much  deeper  and  was  in  a  much  softer  part  of  the  slough  than 
his  was.  It  was  so  soft  near  where  my  horse  was  stuck  that  I 
pushed  a  ten-foot  pole  down  the  whole  length  and  pulled  it  out 
with  but  little  effort.  None  of  my  horses  or  cattle  have  got  stuck 
in  it  for  many  years  although  I  never  have  found  a  deep  enough 
outlet  to  tile  the  deepest  part  of  that  slough.  I  have  tiled  part 
of  the  same  slough  and  about  all  the  other  sloughs  on  my  farm 
so  that  we  often  get  large  crops  of  corn  in  them  and  as  the  most 

68 


DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE.      69 

of  sloughs  near  here  are  tiled  it  is  not  likely  horses  or  cattle  will 
get  stuck  in  the  mud  as  frequently  as  they  used  to  many  years 
ago.  I  am  sure  if  the  last  one  of  my  horses  had  not  been  blind 
that  she  would  never  have  gone  so  far  into  the  slough  because 
animals  have  a  chance  to  go  around  the  worst  part  of  it. 

When  Harley  Nettleton  was  working  their  farm  at  this 
grove,  he  hired  John  Braffet  to  help  make  a  well.  They  found 
plenty  of  water  at  about  40  feet  depth  I  think.  But  they  had  to 
put  in  board  curbing  before  getting  near  that  depth.  I  think  that 
about  10  feet  of  the  bottom  part  of  the  well  was  so  solid  they  did 
not  use  any  curbing  till  they  bricked  it  up  and  when  they  had 
bricked  up  the  board  curbing  Braffet  took  the  board  curbing  out 
of  the  way  to  make  room  for  the  brick  straight  up,  but  it  caved 
in  so  quickly  that  Braffet  would  not  work  in  that  well  any  more. 
He  offered  to  help  dig  another  well  about  30  feet  from  it,  how- 
ever, and  as  they  thought  they  did  not  need  so  much  water  as 
they  had  in  the  first  well,  they  did  not  dig  it  as  deep  by  2  or  3 
feet.  From  there  they  bored  clown  till  they  thought  they  had 
struck  the  same  water  vein  they  had  in  the  first  well.  Then  they 
plugged  the  auger  hole  to  keep  the  water  back  till  they  got  it 
bricked  up.  After  that  they  tried  to  let  the  water  in  but  could 
not  find  much  water  although  they  bored  holes  in  many  direc- 
tions. So  Harley  Xettleton  got  gas  pipe  cut  in  short  lengths,  so 
he  could  bore  across  to  try  to  hit  the  water  vein  in  the  first  hole 
well  and  when  he  had  bored  the  whole  length  of  his  gas  pipe  the 
water  began  to  run  in  and  I  think  that  they  have  had  plenty  of 
water  there  ever  since.  I  had  quite  an  experience  with  my  well 
near  my  dwelling  house.  I  only  dug  it  17  feet  deep  at  first  and 
bored  about  4  feet,  then  the  water  came  in  so  fast  that  I  thought 
there  would  be  plenty  of  water  and  we  got  along  with  it  quite 
well  for  a  few  years.  N.  C.  Allen  and  I  had  stoned  it  up  with 
the  common  prairie  stone,  or  hardheads  as  they  are  often  called ; 
but  when  the  well  failed  to  supply  enough  water  I  had  the  stone 
taken  out  and  had  it  dug  about  9  feet  deeper.  The  quicksand 
there,  however,  about  21  feet  depth,  compelled  me  to  curb  it  with 
boards.  After  that  we  made  wooden  wheels  or  circles  to  keep 
the  boards  from  being  pushed  in  by  the  sand.  Then  we  took  8- 
foot  fence  boards  and  sharpening  the  lower  ends  we  drove  them 
down  fast,  and  the  man  dug  inside  of  the  boards.  When  we  got 


70      DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE. 

the  top  of  the  boards  down  to  the  quicksand  we  quit  driving 
them  further  but  the  man  that  was  digging  began  bricking  it  on 
a  wooden  circle  and  sank  that  a  foot  or  two  below  the  board. 
Then  he  bricked  it  up  inside  of  the  boards  and  left  the  boards 
and  bottom  circle  in  the  well.  I  suppose  they  are  there  still  unless 


DAVID   SMITH  AT  50  YEARS   OF  AGE. 

they  have  rotted,  but  I  feel  sure  they  will  not  rot  for  many  years 
because  they  are  nearly  always  under  water.  There  was  so  much 
water  in  the  well  after  deepening  it  that  it  soon  smelled  so  bad 
we  could  not  use  it  for  the  house  till  I  got  a  wind  mill  and  kept 
it  pumped  out.  After  that  it  was  fresh  and  good  and  I  suppose 
it  has  supplied  more  stock  and  steam  engines  than  any  other  well 


DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE.     71 

in  the  neighborhood.  I  think  I  will  tell  some  of  my  experience 
with  hog  cholera  as  I  have  had  it  on  my  farm  three  times.  But 
as  hogs  were  so  low  priced  the  first  time  I  think  that  there  was 
not  much  loss  because  the  corn  I  would  have  fed  to  them  if  they 
had  lived  to  be  grown  up  and  made  fat,  actually  sold  for  more 
than  the  hogs  would  have  brought.  I  think  I  sold  about  all  of 
the  large  hogs  before  they  got  sick  as  the  young  hogs  got  sick 
first  that  time.  I  had  about  eighty  of  them  but  all  but  seven  died 
and  they  were  sick  so  long  there  was  no  profit  in  keeping  them. 
Both  other  times  I  had  the  hog  cholera  on  my  farm  I  sold  about 
all  my  hogs  that  were  well  and  large  enough  to  attract  buyers 
before  many  got  sick.  But  I  tried  to  keep  a  sow  and  her  little 
pigs  that  were  separate  from  all  the  others.  I  also  tried  to  keep 
about  12  or  15  of  the  smallest  shoats  each  time;  but  the  sow  and 
all  her  pigs  died  and  all  but  one  of  the  small  shoats  died  each  time 
and  one  of  them  got  lame  so  there  was  no  profit  in  keeping  it. 
But  the  next  one  was  a  fine,  healthy  sow  and  she  raised  a  fine 
litter  of  pigs  the  next  year.  She  used  to  run  with  the  cattle  and 
horses  for  company  the  first  winter ;  but  while  running  in  the 
field  she  got  in  company  with  Mr.  Bughsley's  calves  and  stayed 
with  them  till  I  went  for  her.  In  the  spring  I  bought  six  other 
sows  intending  to  raise  pigs  from  them.  Some  one  had  left  a 
gate  open  and  they  were  found  eating  part  of  a  hog  that  had 
died  of  cholera.  I  thought  they  had  taken  that  disease  as  one  of 
them  got  sick,  so  I  sold  the  five  that  were  well  and  let  the  buyer 
ship  the  other  and  I  only  kept  the  one  sow  that  summer.  After 
that  I  generally  bought  the  most  of  the  shoats  or  thin  hogs  that 
I  fattened.  Before  having  the  hog  cholera  on  the  farm  I  some- 
times raised  150  pigs  or  more  in  a  year  and  at  one  time  had  more 
than  300  old  and  young  hogs  at  the  same  time.  Once  I  took  91 
to  PawPaw  at  once  that  averaged  416  Ibs.  I  had  sold  one  carload 
of  them  to  Mr.  Menke  for  $3.75  per  100,  but  before  he  shipped 
them  he  offered  me  $4.25  for  another  carload  of  hogs  so  we 
took  both  carloads  oft"  at  the  same  time. 

The  price  had  been  much  lower  for  some  time  so  I  kept 
putting  off  selling  any  till  they  got  as  high  as  $3.75  before  selling. 
That  accounts  for  being  very  fat  and  heavy  before  selling.  The 
price  kept  rising  so  that  hogs  were  worth  $5.00  per  100  before 
spring.  But  I  think  that  Mr.  Manke  did  not  make  much  on  that 


72      DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE. 

purchase  as  six  of  that  lot  died  while  being  shipped  to  Chicago. 
I  think  that  he  put  too  many  in  a  car  and  they  were  too  large 
and  fat. 

I  think  I  will  tell  some  of  my  experience  about  having  cattle 
dehorned.  I  had  one  horse  killed  and  several  cattle  badly  hurt. 
Some,  no  doubt,  would  have  been  killed  if  I  had  not  got  to  them 
in  time  to  save  them.  Others  were  hooked  or  pushed  into  the 
hay  racks  on  their  backs  so  that  they  died  sometimes  before 
being  found.  I  knew  of  both  men  and  women  being  badly  hurt. 
I  was  well  acquainted  with  a  man  in  this  township  that  was  killed 
by  being  horned  by  a  bull.  I  had  read  and  heard  of  many  such 
accidents.  I  had  read,  too,  of  Mr.  Raffs'  success  in  dehorning 
many  cattle  without  losing  any  so  I  got  his  little  book  telling  how 
he  dehorned  his  cattle.  I  read  many  other  articles  against  and 
in  favor  of  dehorning  but  I  had  never  seen  it  done.  But  some 
of  my  cows  frequently  got  loose  in  the  barn  and  would  hook 
others  that  were  held  in  the  stanchions  so  that  they  would  bellow 
till  some  one  got  there.  I  resolved  therefore  to  take  their  horns 
off  although  many  said  it  was  too  cruel.  I  thought  it  did  not 
hurt  them  as  badly  as  they  frequently  hurt  each  other  with  their 
horns,  so  I  took  a  handsaw  and  ropes  and  help,  and  took  the 
horns  off  all  of  my  cows  and  they  all  got  well  nicely.  I  had  no 
more  trouble  from  any  of  that  lot  of  cows  hooking  each  other. 
If  any  of  them  got  their  heads  out  of  the  stanchions  they  never 
disturbed  the  others  as  they  did  not  seem  to  enjoy  hooking  unless 
they  made  them  bellow.  One  of  them  had  real  sharp  horns  and 
would  go  at  the  others  quickly  and  fiercely.  I  saw  her  once  knock 
a  steer  into  the  water  tank  and  some  time  after  her  horns  were 
taken  off  I  saw  her  shake  her  head  at  the  same  steer  ordering 
him  to  get  away,  but  he  looked  at  her  in  a  very  unconcerned 
manner,  almost  like  telling  her  he  was  no  longer  afraid  as  he 
saw  she  had  no  horns. 

Many  of  the  neighbors  began  to  get  the  horns  taken  off  their 
cattle.  Some  men  fixed  racks  to  hold  the  cattle  in  while  dehorn- 
ing, taking  the  racks  around  with  them  to  dehorn  cattle  for  others 
for  a  certain  price  for  each  one  dehorned.  I  think  I  only  heard 
of  two  cattle  dying  from  the  effects  of  being  dehorned.  One  of 
them  was  said  to  have  bled  to  death  about  a  week  after  being 
dehorned  and  I  thought  perhaps  the  other  might  have  been  in- 


DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE.      73 

fected  because  the  saw  was  not  cleaned  before  beginning  to 
dehorn.  I  had  a  large  bull  dehorned  that  started  bleeding  badly 
after  being  chased  around  by  the  other  cattle.  They  saw  they 
could  drive  him  after  he  was  dehorned,  so  I  had  to  keep  him 
away  from  the  others  till  his  head  had  healed  up  good. 

T  saw  a  fine  lot  of  large  steers  that  James  Pulver  was  fat- 
tening many  years  ago.  They  were  all  eating  out  of  one  feed- 
box.  They  had  no  horns ;  they  stood  quietly  eating  about  as 
closely  as  they  could  stand.  I  thought  that  that  was  a  good  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  dehorning  because  if  part  or  all  of  them  had 


DAVID   SMITH   PUTTING   OATS   IN  HIS   GRANAUY   WHILE   THRESHING 
3,000    BUSHEL.  -IN    ONE   DAY. 

horns,  they  would  have  been  driving  each  other  around  and  drop- 
ping their  corn  in  the  mud  and  perhaps  less  than  half  of  them 
would  eat  at  the  one  box  at  the  same  time. 

I  think  I  will  write  some  of  my  experience  having  tiling 
done  as  I  have  had  more  experience  about  getting  such  work 
done  than  most  men  have  had.  I  have  had  other  small  farms 
tiled  that  I  have  sold  since  besides  the  farm  that  I  have  now  as 
I  began  tiling  nearly  40  years  ago.  Some  years  before  tile  were 
kept  for  sale  at  PawPaw  or  any  of  the  nearest  railroad  stations, 
I  went  to  Utica  for  the  first  tile  that  I  bought  and  I  hauled  some 


74      DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE. 

loads  from  the  tile  yards  at  Hinckley  and  Earlville  before  they 
sold  or  made  them  at  PawPaw.  I  only  used  2-inch  tile  at  first 
and  they  answered  first  rate  for  short  distance  unless  they  got 
filled  with  dirt  by  the  cattle  tramping  at  the  outlet.  Before  I 
had  seen  any  tile  I  drained  my  cellar  by  using  two  boards  6  inches 
wide  two  2-inch  strips  between  and  as  many  lengths  as  necessary. 
This  method  drained  the  cellar  good  at  first  but  the  hogs  filled 
the  outlet  so  that  the  water  could  not  run  that  way.  Naturally 
it  run  into  the  cellar  till  it  got  about  2  feet  deep.  The  outlet 
should  always  be  well  protected  both  to  keep  the  cattle  from 
tramping  the  tile  full  and  to  keep  muskrats  or  skunks  from  crawl- 
ing as  far  up  as  they  can  and  dying  there.  I  had  one  tile  stopped 
in  that  way  by  a  muskrat.  The  man  that  was  tiling,  in  trying  to 
find  where  it  was  stopped  up  dug  several  places  but  he  did  not 
find  the  obstruction  till  I  followed  the  title  ditch  down  till  I  came 
to  the  lower  and  wettest  place,  where  the  water  came  to  the  sur- 
face. Then  I  had  him  dig  there  and  he  found  the  muskrat  and 
also  a  piece  of  board  that  had  floated  down  from  where  he  had 
quit  tiling  in  the  fall  before.  And  my  brother  Robert  had  some 
tile  stopped  up  in  the  same  way  by  a  skunk  that  had  crawled  up 
till  it  got  to  tile  that  was  too  small  for  it  and  it  could  not  turn 
back,  so  it  died  there.  I  read  of  a  man  that  found  eleven  musk- 
rats  all  dead  in  one  place  in  his  tile.  I  frequently  have  had  tile 
taken  up  as  the  parties  that  put  them  in  failed  to  put  them  as 
deep  as  they  did  in  the  slough  but  I  generally  had  the  men  that 
were  putting  the  tile  in,  leave  them  uncovered  so  that  I  could  see 
whether  they  were  put  in  right  before  covering  them  and  then 
fill  the  ditch  mostly  with  the  use  of  plow  or  plank  scraper  after 
putting  a  little  dirt  on  the  tile  with  a  spade  to  keep  the  tile  from 
being  moved.  Sometimes  we  had  the  men  take  them  up  the 
second  time  before  getting  them  deep  enough.  But  once  the  men 
that  were  putting  tile  in  for  me  dug  much  too  deep  at  the  outlet 
of  the  slough  as  they  worked  without  a  level  or  anything  to  guide 
them.  They  got  the  ditch  about  8  feet  deep  where  it  should  have 
been  6  only,  making  it  at  least  a  foot  deeper  than  it  was  about 
15  rods  further  down,  so  they  dug  further  down  the  outlet  to  let 
the  water  run  from  where  they  had  dug  deepest.  When  they 
came  back  to  work  at  the  deepest  place  again  it  caved  in  and 
killed  one  of  the  men,  a  Mr.  Reams,  and  I  could  not  get  the  other 


DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE.      75 

man  (Mr.  Carl)  to  finish  the  job,  so  I  paid  him  for  what  he  had 
done  and  tried  to  get  others  to  do  the  job.  Two  or  three  different 
men  agreed  to  do  it  but  they  failed.  So  I  sold  that  farm  to 
Thomas  Wells  and  he  had  it  surveyed  and  a  new  ditch  made 
along  beside  the  one  Mr.  Carl  and  Mr.  Reams  had  dug.  He 
made  it  only  $l/2  feet  deep  where  Reams  and  Carl  had  made  it 
about  8  feet  as  I  had  let  them  do  their  own  surveying  because 
Mr.  Carl  was  quite  an  old  hand  at  tiling.  I  think,  however,  that 
he  has  never  worked  at  it  since  that  fatal  accident  to  his  partner 
or  employe ;  but  there  was  no  occasion  for  having  such  an  acci- 
dent, as  Mr.  Wells  told  me  the  tile  he  had  put  in  worked  good 
although  more  than  2  feet  less  depth  than  the  ditch  Carl  and 
Reams  dug.  Before  I  began  tiling  my  farm,  there  were  many 
sloughs  or  low  places  that  would  have  water  in  when  we  were 
putting  in  the  crops,  and  that  made  it  very  unhandy  especially 
while  planting  corn  with  a  checkrower.  At  such  times  we  had 
to  drive  through  mud  and  water  or  turn  at  each  side  of  those  wet 
places  and  if  we  got  the  planter  wet  or  muddy  so  that  the  corn 
would  stick  to  the  planter  runners  or  shoes,  it  would  not  leave 
the  corn  in  the  hills.  Some  of  the  sloughs  would  often  have 
water  in  the  whole  year  and  some  of  them  often  produced  much 
larger  crops  especially  of  corn  than  the  high  lands  do  now.  One 
large  slough  got  on  fire  and  burned  the  turf  for  a  month  or  two 
and  it  does  not  produce  nearly  as  large  crops  where  the  turf  is 
burned  off.  We  tried  to  put  the  fire  out  but  did  not  succeed.  As 
the  Norwegian,  my  hired  man,  expressed  himself,  he  said  that 
"water  will  not  kill  that  fire."  But  I  suppose  if  we  had  had  a 
few  carloads  of  water  and  lots  of  help  it  might  have  been  put 
out.  I  heard  that  the  railroad  company  put  out  a  fire  of  that 
kind  near  their  track  between  Lee  and  Shabbona  in  that  way.  But 
my  slough  took  fire  in  many  places  about  the  same  time  as  the 
turf  took  fire  while  my  hired  men  were  burning  off  the  slough 
grass  so  that  we  could  plow  it  better.  And  the  turf  kept  burning 
deeper  and  deeper  as  it  dried  down  to  the  tile  and  burned  over 
the  same  place  two  or  three  times.  One  night,  Hewlett's  folks 
sent  for  help  to  put  out  the  fire  in  their  corn  field  as  the  turf  had 
burned  beyond  where  we  had  burned  the  grass  off  and  was  burn- 
ing their  corn  field,  but  they  put  the  fire  out  before  it  had  done 
much  damage.  It  burned  my  board  fence,  however,  where  the 


76      DRAINAGE,  HOG  CHOLERA,  DEHORNING  CATTLE. 

turf  burned,  after  we  had  burned  the  grass  off  and  we  had 
thought  the  fence  and  corn  field  were  safe.  But  the  fire  helped 
kill  the  willows  I  had  planted  by  an  open  ditch  through  that 
slough  before  I  had  thought  of  tiling  it  and  they  had  bent  or 
broken  down  in  the  wettest  part  of  the  slough  and  grown  and 
made  quite  a  forest  of  willows  there  but  the  fire  killed  the  most 
of  them.  But  some  places  I  have  tiled  where  there  is  often  more 
water  running  than  the  tile  would  hold  and  it  has  washed  all 
the  dirt  off  the  tile  even  where  they  were  covered  nearly  3  feet 
deep  when  first  put  in.  I  suppose  I  better  have  the  tile  put  in  a 
little  to  one  side  of  the  ditch  where  the  water  runs  swiftly. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

Wild  Game  of  Early  Days 

Perhaps  some  of  my  friends  would  like  to  have  me  tell  a 
little  about  the  wolves  so  frequently  seen  going  either  from  the 
timber  to  the  cultivated  field  or  back  to  the  timber.  I  think  they 
hunt  for  rabbits  or  squirrels  or  mice,  in  both  places.  When  I 
used  to  raise  a  lot  of  pigs,  they  would  sometimes  take  one  of 
them.  One  of  my  neighbors  told  me  he  saw  a  wolf  running 
from  near  my  buildings  to  the  grove  with  a  pig  in  its  mouth  and 
while  my  brother  Robert  lived  on  his  farm,  he  had  a  calf  killed 
by  wolves.  Soon  after  that  I  saw  two  large  prairie  wolves  in 
my  field  as  I  was  starting  to  husk  corn  with  my  hired  man.  At 
that  we  stopped.  I  got  my  rifle  and  had  the  man  drive  as  though 
he  was  going  to  pass  about  15  rods  one  side  of  the  nearest  wolf, 
then  we  stopped  when  we  got  within  that  distance.  I  fired  at  it 
and  the  ball  nearly  broke  its  back  so  that  it  could  not  run  fast ; 
but  it  ran  as  fast  as  it  could  and  I  ran  after  it  and  soon  overtook 
it,  struck  at  it  with  the  rifle,  but  it  stopped  instantly  and  bit  the 
rifle,  leaving  the  mark  of  its  teeth  in  the  barrel.  By  stopping  so 
suddenly  under  my  feet,  I  fell  on  the  wolf  but  I  caught  it  by  the 
throat  so  it  could  not  bite  me.  It  was  so  badly  wounded  that  it 
did  not  try  to  fight  much  and  my  hired  man  drove  over  with  the 
wagon  and  helped  kill  it.  At  another  time,  a  wolf  came  within 
20  or  30  rods  of  where  I  was  working  in  the  field.  I  sent  a  boy 
that  worked  for  me  then  for  my  rifle,  and  while  he  was  gone  the 
wolf  came  to  within  20  or  30  rods  of  where  I  was  working  again. 
At  this  point  I  had  the  boy  ride  back  between  the  grove  and  the 
wolf,  hoping  to  take  its  attention  so  that  I  could  get  near  enough 
to  shoot  it,  but  it  ran  past  the  boy  and  into  the  grove.  When  1 
was  going  back  to  work  I  looked  into  a  hole  in  our  old  sod  fence 
and  saw  a  young  wolf  which  I  shot  and  while  I  was  skinning  it 
the  old  wolf  came  back  within  60  or  80  rods  of  me  and  took  an- 
other young  wolf  in  its  mouth  and  ran  into  the  grove  with  it  as 

77 


78  WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS. 

fast  as  it  could.  I  ran  to  where  it  got  the  young  wolf  and  found 
another  there  which  I  caught  in  my  hands  and  killed  as  my  gun 
was  not  loaded.  But  I  loaded  it  at  once  and  hid  nearby  for  hours 
hoping  the  wolf  would  return  so  that  I  could  shoot  it,  but  when  it 
came  in  sight  it  was  very  shy  and  kept  far  to  one  side  although  I 
thought  I  was  pretty  well  concealed  from  sight.  I  suppose  it  had 
carried  one  of  its  young  further  from  the  spot  where  we  were  at 
work  each  time  that  I  saw  it  come  toward  me,  but  had  not  time 
to  get  the  other  till  the  boy  came  with  the  rifle  and  I  shot  it.  I 
think  those  three  wolves  were  all  I  ever  killed  although  they  are 
frequently  seen  near  here  yet,  and  my  renter,  Walter  Barringer, 
fired  at  one  near  my  corn  crib  a  few  months  ago.  I  have  fired  at 
others  myself  but  think  I  did  not  hit  any  of  them  as  they  were 
either  running  or  too  far  from  me.  As  there  were  only  three 
young  wolves  with  that  old  one  I  think  her  mate  probably  was 
taking  care  of  part  of  their  young,  as  they  generally  have  six  or 
eight  at  a  time.  Once  one  of  the  Stubbs  boys  found  about  that 
number  in  a  straw  or  hay  stack  near  this  grove  and  J.  S.  Pulver 
found  as  many  in  a  hole  in  the  ground  near  his  farm  and  I  think 
he  killed  the  old  wolf  also.  I  think  too  that  one  of  his  sons  had 
killed  an  old  wolf  near  their  house  that  perhaps  was  the  mate  to 
the  one  his  father  killed.  I  still  keep  the  same  muzzle-loading 
rifle  I  had  when  a  boy.  Uncle  John  Colville  made  me  a  present 
of  it  when  I  was  about  14  years  old  as  I  was  quite  fond  of  hunt- 
ing when  I  wras  young,  but  I  never  had  any  of  the  repeating  or 
fast  shooting  guns  like  some  use  lately.  Deer  were  getting  so 
shy  before  I  got  my  rifle  that  we  seldom  could  get  near  enough 
to  shoot  them ;  but  brother  Robert  shot  one  with  my  rifle.  As  the 
deer  used  to  come  in  the  grove  about  dark  and  start  out  again 
as  soon  as  it  began  to  get  a  little  daylight,  it  was  generally  too 
dark  to  shoot  while  they  were  in  the  timber.  On  the  open  prairie 
the  deer  could  generally  see  so  far,  unless  they  were  in  deep  hol- 
lows, that  they  would  generally  keep  beyond  gunshot.  But  Robert 
saw  three  deer  coming  toward  him  one  day  before  it  got  very 
dark.  He  waited  behind  a  tree  till  they  got  near  enough  and 
then  shot  one  and  cut  its  throat  and  held  it  till  it  quit  struggling, 
but  when  he  quit  holding  it,  it  jumped  up  and  ran  so  far  he  could 
not  find  it.  I  went  to  Howletts  and  got  his  son  George  and  their 
dog,  and  the  dog  soon  found  it.  It  had  run  nearly  80  rods  after 


WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS.  79 

its  throat  was  cut.  For  quite  a  number  of  years  after  we  settled 
here  there  were  no  houses  on  the  north  side  of  this  or  Allen's 
grove  or  on  the  prairie  anywhere  near  here  except  close  to  the 
groves  and  the  deer  used  to  come  into  these  groves  very  much  in 
the  winters  as  the  prairies  were  generally  burned  off  so  that  deer 
got  most  of  their  winter  feed  in  the  groves,  such  as  leaves,  twigs 
and  acorns.  Old  Mr.  H.  G.  Hewlett  used  to  kill  several  deer 
every  winter  for  several  years  after  he  came  here  in  1839  and 
hjs  son  George  told  me  a  man  who  was  boarding  with  them  shot 
two  female  deer  at  one  shot.  One  of  them  had  twins  in  it  and 
the  other  one  fawn  in  it,  so  that  he  said  he  killed  five  deer  at  one 
shot. 

I  think  I  never  killed  but  one  deer  and  that  was  in  the  creek 
about  four  miles  northwest  of  here.  My  youngest  brother  and 
I  took  my  rifle  and  an  old  shotgun  expecting  to  find  some  ducks 
or  geese  in  the  creek  as  the  sloughs  were  about  all  dry  and  only 
the  deepest  places  in  the  creek  contained  water.  We  did  not  see 
any  geese  or  ducks  that  time  but  saw  two  small  deer  in  a  deep 
place  close  to  the  water.  I  shot  one  of  them,  but  before  shooting, 
when  I  looked  along  the  sights  of  the  rifle  I  thought  they  looked 
so  much  like  young  colts  that  I  dare  not  shoot  till  I  looked  up 
two  or  three  times  to  be  very  sure  they  were  not  colts.  I  only 
had  a  small  pocket  knife  to  cut  its  throat  and  skin  and  dress  it 
with,  but  when  I  had  that  done  I  cut  it  in  two  where  the  ball 
had  gone  through  its  back  and  let  my  brother  carry  half  of  the 
flesh  while  I  took  the  other  half  and  the  skin  and  both  guns  as  I 
was  about  15  years  old  and  my  brother  only  9.  Thus  we  marched 
home  across  the  prairie  with  our  loads  which  were  heavy  enough 
before  we  got  home  although  the  deer  was  not  large.  I  have 
fired  at  two  or  three  other  deer  but  at  so  great  a  distance  I  did 
not  hit  them,  but  I  put  a  ball  in  one  that  a  large  dog  of  Shoudy's 
had  by  the  throat.  I  feel  sure  it  was  dead  before  I  fired,  as  it 
did  not  move  either  when  I  fired  or  when  I  cut  its  throat.  The 
snow  was  frozen  on  top  but  the  deer's  feet  cut  through  while  the 
dog  could  run  on  the  snow  without  breaking  through  the  top 
crust  of  ice.  Besides  the  Allen  and  Shoudy  boys  had  been  chas- 
ing the  deer  a  long  time  the  day  before  I  found  it.  But  when  it 
got  dark  they  left  the  deer  in  Allen's  grove  till  next  morning  and 
they  asked  me  to  help  find  it  as  they  said  it  was  so  sore  footed  it 


80  WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS. 

would  not  run  much.  We  boys  went  in  different  directions  in 
Allen's  grove  and  I  was  the  first  to  find  it  but  as  the  dog  had  it 
by  the  throat  I  did  not  know  but  it  might  still  run  like  the  one 
that  brother  Robert  killed,  so  I  thought  best  to  shoot  it  and  when 
the  other  boys  heard  me  shoot  they  all  came  to  where  I  was  and 
we  took  the  deer  to  Shoudy's  house  and  divided  the  flesh  among 
us,  letting  Shoudys  have  the  skin  as  their  dog  caught  the  deer. 

The  coons  were  the  most  valuable  game  animals  we  had 
near  here  next  to  the  deer  after  we  came.  There  is  little  or  no 
doubt  but  that  the  buffalo  used  to  be  here  many  years  before  we 
came  here  as  there  were  many  large  bones  on  the  prairie  when 
we  came  here.  I  think  they  were  buffalo  bones  because  old  chief 
Shabona  said  a  hard  winter  and  deep  snow  had  killed  all  of  the 
buffaloes  in  this  part  of  the  country  many  years  before.  Al- 
though the  coons  were  not  numerous,  brother  Robert  told  me 
that  he  got  six  or  seven  in  a  hollow  tree  or  stump  in  the  winter 
of  1842  and  1843.  That  was  while  I  was  stopping  at  the  Hopps 
place  at  Wheeling,  Cook  county,  Illinois.  I  have  killed  a  few  but 
never  found  more  than  two  together.  While  I  was  going  to  school 
at  Allen's  Grove  I  took  a  little  walk  at  noon  in  the  grove  and  saw 
a  large  coon  on  a  tree.  At  once  I  went  and  borrowed  Mr. 
Shoudy's  gun,  a  double  barrel  shot  gun.  He  said  one  barrel  was 
loaded  with  large  shot  and  the  other  with  small  shot  and  to  save 
the  large  shot  unless  I  needed  it,  but  the  small  shot  only  made 
the  coon  climb  much  higher  till  he  came  to  another  large  coon 
and  when  I  fired  the  large  shot  both  coons  tumbled  down. 
William  Shoudy  and  his  dogs  had  come  there  with  me  and  the 
coons  tried  to  fight  the  dogs  after  being  shot  and  falling  40  or  50 
feet  but  we  helped  the  dogs  and  soon  killed  them.  Some  nights 
our  dog  would  run  a  coon  up  a  tree  and  keep  it  there  till  morn- 
ing when  I  would  shoot  him.  My  folks  never  cooked  the  coon's 
flesh  but  I  have  eaten  some  at  other  places.  I  do  not  know  what 
they  live  on  but  I  have  heard  they  would  kill  and  eat  chickens. 
I  never  knew  that  they  caught  any  of  my  chickens  but  I  know  the 
minks  did,  and  I  shot  onfe  while  it  had  hold  of  a  chicken  trying 
to  pull  it  under  a  wood  pile.  I  caught  another  one  in  my  hands 
and  killed  it,  when  our  dog  had  run  it  under  a  reaper.  It  was 
watching  the  dog  so  closely  I  reached  under  the  other  side  of  the 
reaper  and  caught  it  and  pulled  it  under  my  knee  and  kept  it 


WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS.  81 

there  till  I  got  my  knife  out  and  killed  it,  but  it  bit  my  knee  al- 
though it  did  not  get  its  teeth  very  deep  through  my  pants.  I 
have  killed  other  minks  and  coons;  but  as  their  skins  sold  for 
very  low  prices  when  I  was  young,  I  hunted  mostly  for  birds  that 
we  could  eat,  like  ducks  and  geese  and  cranes  and  prairie  chickens 
and  the  wild  pigeons  which  used  to  be  around  here  in  large  flocks. 
But  I  have  not  seen  a  wild  pigeon  for  many  years.  The  cranes, 
too,  very  seldom  fly  past  here  now,  but  they  used  to  have  their 
nests  in  sloughs  on  top  of  mnskrat  houses  near  here  and  some  of 
our  neighbors  used  to  tame  both  cranes  and  wild  geese  and  ducks. 
Sometimes  these  pets  would  fly  off  with  the  wild  ones  whei> 
others  of  the  same  kind  passed,  unless  some  of  their  feathers 
were  kept  shortened.  I  have  been  told  that  tame  cranes  were 
extra  good  at  catching  mice.  Although  cranes  were  our  largest 
birds  here  they  would  fly  very  high.  They  would  sometimes 
circle  around  and  keep  going  higher  till  they  got  out  of  sight  and 
they  seldom  flew  in  large  flocks  like  geese  or  ducks  or  many 
other  birds  but  I  think  I  have  seen  at  least  30  or  40  at  once,  close 
to  our  corn  field.  They  seemed  to  be  fond  of  new  corn  but  were 
shy  about  getting  far  in  among  the  corn  stalks  as  I  suppose  they 
wanted  a  chance  to  see  if  any  persons  came  too  near  them.  Some- 
times I  fired  at  them  with  the  rifle  and  twice  I  only  broke  one 
wing  and  while  they  could  run  faster  than  I  could  my  dog  got 
ahead  of  it.  He  would  not  take  hold  of  it  as  it  would  fight  and 
when  I  got  almost  near  enough  to  catch  it,  it  would  start  to  run 
again.  But  the  dog  soon  got  ahead  of  it  and  stopped  it  and  I 
went  within  6  or  8  feet  of  it  and  stopped  and  then  made  a  quick 
jump  to  catch  it.  But  it  jumped  at  me  and  picked  me  on  the 
throat.  At  last  I  caught  it  by  the  neck  and  killed  it  and  the  other 
one  whose  wing  I  had  broken,  I  shot  the  second  time  as  the  dog 
was  not  with  me.  Once,  one  of  my  hired  men  took  his  gun  in 
the  field  with  him  and  shot  a  crane  and  when  he  came  to  the 
house  he  was  so  careless  getting  out  of  the  wagon  with  his  gun 
he  discharged  the  gun  and  shot  one  of  my  colts  so  badly  that  we 
had  to  have  it  killed. 

Soon  after  we  raised  crops  of  grain  in  this  country  the  geese 
and  ducks  would  alight  in  large  numbers  in  the  stubble  or  when 
we  sowed  wheat  in  the  fall  the  geese  which  were  very  fond  of 
the  tender  blades  of  the  wheat  would  come  so  thick  that  we  could 


82  WILD  GAME  OF  EARLY  DAYS. 

often  shoot  more  than  one  at  a  shot.  One  of  the  first  settlers  at 
Twin  Grove  told  me  he  had  killed  three  ducks  at  one  shot  with 
his  rifle,  they  were  so  thick  in  the  water  in  that  grove,  and  he 
said  he  shot  an  otter  there.  Brother  Robert  said  he  saw  another 
otter  there  but  it  went  down  in  the  water  so  quickly  he  had  no 
chance  to  shoot  it.  The  geese  often  got  so  thick  in  our  field 
after  I  got  old  enough  to  hunt  them  that  I  frequently  killed  two 
at  one  shot.  I  once  put  a  rifle  ball  through  the  body  of  two 
geese  at  one  shot  but  they  both  flew  nearly  80  rods  after  being 
shot. 

The  prairie  chickens  and  quails  were  our  commonest  game 
bird  as  they  stayed  here  the  whole  year  and  there  was  no  law 
against  killing  them  at  any  time.  Many  years  ago  I  heard  that 
Sidney  Hastings  shot  eleven  prairie  chickens  at  one  shot.  His 
folks  had  corn  that  was  not  husked  till  very  late  so  that  the 
prairie  chickens  gathered  there  in  great  numbers  and  would  often 
sit  on  the  fence  very  thickly,  so  that  when  Hastings  fired  length 
ways  of  the  fence  he  found  in  one  instance  he  had  killed  eleven. 
My  brother  Alexander  killed  eleven  quails  at  one  shot  and  I 
killed  eight  wild  pigeons  at  one  shot  as  they  had  lit  very  thickly 
around  where  we  had  threshed. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Social  Life  of  the  Pioneers 

I  think  that  I  will  write  a  little  about  the  sociable  meetings, 
preachings  and  Sunday  schools  of  the  early  settlers  in  this  part 
of  the  country  before  we  had  telephones  or  automobiles  or  many 
of  the  conveniences  that  are  so  common  now. 

I  remember  going  with  father  and  mother  to  hear  preaching 
in  Mr.  David  Town's  barn,  75  years  ago,  and  not  long  after  that 
I  went  with  father  to  hear  a  Mormon  preach  in  a  log  house  south 
of  Paw  Paw  Grove,  and  father  said  that  his  preaching  was  nearly 
the  same  as  other  preachers.  I  think  the  first  Sunday  school  that 
I  attended  was  in  one  of  Mr.  Shoudy's  log  houses.  Mr.  Shoudy 
had  brought  a  few  Sunday  school  books  from  Rock  Island  when 
he  moved  to  Allen's  Grove.  Here  he  started  a  little  Sunday 
school  in  one  of  his  log  houses  with  only  his  family  and  Howletts 
and  my  folks  to  attend.  Dr.  Basford  was  living  there  and  had 
a  daughter,  nearly  woman-grown,  and  another  girl  that  was  quite 
small,  but  I  think  they  took  no  part  in  either  the  Sunday  or  other 
day  schools.  The  doctor  tried  to  teach  the  school  at  Paw  Paw 
one  winter,  but  some  of  the  larger  boys  put  him  out  of  the  house 
and  he  gave  up  the  school.  He  only  stayed  at  Allen's  Grove  a 
few  years.  I  heard  that  he  settled  south  of  Peru  and  that  his 
daughter  was  married  there  and  a  lot  of  boys  came  to  charivari 
the  parties  and  that  the  doctor  treated  them  to  cakes  that  had 
emetic  in  which  soon  had  the  boys  vomiting.  A  paper  that  pub- 
lished the  account  of  it  added,  "We  think  that  the  doctor  deserves 
a  new  hat." 

I  noticed  a  mistake  in  one  of  the  Lee  county  histories  that 
said  Martha  Vandeventer  taught  the  first  school  here  or  in  this 
township.  There  were  three  teachers  who  taught  one  term  each 
before  Martha  Vandeventer  taught.  I  think  she  taught  the  first 
summer  school  in  this  township.  I  never  attended  any  summer 


84  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE   PIONEERS. 

school  after  I  was  old  enough  to  work  much  on  the  farm  but  I 
went  to  school  the  three  first  winters  that  we  had  school  at  Allen's 
Grove  or  in  this  township.  The  first  was  taught  in  one  of 
Shoudy's  log  houses  by  Clarissa  Price  when  I  was  13  years  old. 
I  remember  she  gave  us  words  to  spell  and  define  that  we  should 
remember  the  next  day  and  on  the  last  day  of  school  she  gave 
us  words  to  remember  till  we  saw  her  again  but  I  have  never 
seen  her  since.  I  still  remember  the  word  she  gave  me.  Simoon 
— a  hot,  sultry  wind,  in  sandy  deserts.  Next  winter,  Eliza  Net- 
tleton  taught  in  the  same  house  and  we  had  a  little  larger  school 
as  some  of  her  brothers  came  with  her.  Our  next  school  was 
taught  by  Laura  Brace  in  the  Basford  house  as  he  had  moved 
away.  She  was  so  poor  in  arithmetic  the  directors  thought  of 
dismissing  her. and  Mr.  Shoudy  asked  me  to  teach  the  school  as 
I  was  so  good  in  arithmetic  but  I  told  him  I  would  not  take 
charge  of  the  school  but  that  I  would  help  the  teacher  or  pupils 
in  arithmetic.  I  never  charged  for  help  of  that  kind  because  I 
liked  to  do  it.  So  the  directors  let  her  teach  her  term  out.  George 
Hewlett  used  to  boast  that  our  little  school  had  the  best  speller, 
best  penman  and  best  in  arithmetic  of  any  school  near  us.  My 
sister  was  extra  good  at  spelling  and  she  said  she  could  remember 
how  a  word  looked  in  print  so  that  she  could  spell  any  word  cor- 
rectly that  she  could  remember  having  seen  in  print ;  George 
Hewlett  was  a  good  penman  and  I  was  as  good  in  arithmetic. 
Sometimes  one  of  the  schools  from  Paw  Paw  or  Shabbona  would 
visit  our  school  and  try  to  spell  our  school  down.  Each  person 
was  to  sit  down  as  soon  as  he  misspelled  a  word.  Sometimes  our 
school  would  visit  their  schools  and  try  to  spell  their  school  down 
or  sometimes  two  of  the  pupils  would  choose  spellers  from  either 
school  and  try  which  had  selected  the  best  spellers.  I  think  that 
was  a  more  friendly  way  than  matching  one  school  against  the 
other.  We  always  went  in  large  wagons  or  sleighs  and  sat  down 
on  the  hay  in  the  wagon  box,  as  we  had  no  buggies  or  automo- 
biles at  that  time,  and  we  nearly  always  went  in  the  evenings 
after  school  hours.  Of  course  the  school  where  we  were  to  meet 
was  notified  when  to  expect  us. 

After  the  Sunday  school  at  Allen's  Grove  was  closed,  a  Mrs. 
McKnight  started  one  in  her  house  about  half  a  mile  north  of 
East  Paw  Paw  and  sometimes  we  went  there  on  foot  and  some- 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PIONEERS.  85 

times  some  of  the  Nettletons  would  go  with  us  either  with  their 
team  or  ours. 

I  remember  once  while  walking  home  from  there  I  saw  a 
duck's  nest  on  a  muskrat's  mound  but  the  water  had  risen  above 
the  eggs  and  they  were  mixed  with  the  moss  and  partly  out  of 
sight.  While  I  was  taking  them  out  I  picked  up  quite  a  fair  sized 
black  snake  alive.  It  was  under  water  and  among  the  eggs  and 
moss  so  I  did  not  see  it  till  I  lifted  it;  then  I  threw  it  and  ran 
and  did  not  wait  to  hunt  any  more  duck  eggs  that  Sunday.  After 
that,  while  gathering  the  hens'  eggs  at  home  I  found  a  large 
snake  coiled  around  some  eggs  and  I  thought  I  was  fortunate 
not  to  have  been  bitten,  as  the  nest  was  rather  high  to  look  in 
before  reaching  my  hand  into  the  nest ;  but  I  killed  the  snake  and 
threw  it  and  the  eggs  and  nest  away. 

I  think  I  have  been  quite  fortunate  never  to  have  been  bitten 
while  rattlesnakes  were  common.  Both  of  my  brothers  were 
bitten  and  although  I  went  barefoot  more  then  either  of  them. 
I  never  was  bitten.  Once  I  stepped  on  a  rattlesnake  while  I  was 
barefoot  but  it  was  coiled  so  that  it  could  not  get  its  head  loose 
till  I  got  off,  but  that  was  very  quickly.  While  binding  grain  by 
hand,  as  we  always  used  to  do,  we  sometimes  found  a  rattlesnake 
under  the  bundles.  Once  while  changing  work  in  harvest  with 
the  Ellsworths,  old  Mr.  Ellsworth  told  me  he  found  a  rattlesnake 
under  a  bundle  but  did  not  tell  the  other  binders  as  he  thought 
that  they  would  be  looking  under  every  bundle  before  binding  it 
so  that  they  would  not  get  near  as  much  binding  done.  While 
father  kept  sheep  we  lost  several  that  we  felt  sure  were  bitten  by 
snakes.  I  think  that  a  rattlesnake  bite  is  about  sure  death  for  a 
sheep  but  I  have  read  that  hogs  would  kill  and  eat  the  snakes 
without  injury.  Their  bite  is  sometimes  fatal  to  both  people 
and  horses  and  one  of  the  neighbors  lost  a  son  about  a  year  after 
being  bitten.  It  was  thought  that  it  was  from  the  effect  of  the 
bite.  I  have  heard  that  it  generally  or  always  showed  some  of 
the  effect  of  the  poison  in  about  a  year  after  the  bite.  My 
brother  Robert's  leg  turned  quite  spotted  the  next  summer  after 
he  was  bitten. 

But  I  will  leave  the  snake  stories  and  tell  more  about  the 
early  Sunday  schools. 

After  keeping  it  in  Mrs.  McKnight's  house  a  while  they  got 


86  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PIONEERS. 

the  use  of  a  large  upper  room  in  a  hotel  about  half  a  mile  west 
of  East  Paw  Paw  and  I  think  that  old  Mr.  Grover  was  superin- 
tendent or  principal  manager.  There  they  kept  the  Sunday 
school  for  a  while  although  they  sold  whisky  in  the  bar-room 
below  us.  I  think  they  soon  united  with  the  Sunday  school  kept 
by  old  Mr.  Pine  a  little  south  of  East  Paw  Paw. 

I  remember  of  going  to  a  Sunday  school  picnic  there  one 
4th  of  July  about  70  years  ago  when  we  had  a  thunder  shower 
and  very  loud  thunder.  Old  Mr.  Pine  was  telling  the  children 
not  to  be  afraid  and  as  soon  as  they  heard  the  thunder  that  the 
danger  of  the  flash  was  passed.  But  a  large  red  oak  tree  in  our 
grove  was  torn  to  pieces  the  most  effectually  I  ever  saw  done. 
Most  of  the  tree  was  torn  into  slivers  or  chips  and  the  ground 
for  many  rods  around  the  tree  was  strewn  with  small  pieces  of 
bark  and  slivers.  I  think  old  Mr.  Pine  was  a  real  good  man  and 
well  liked  by  nearly  everyone  that  knew  him.  He  lived  to  be 
nearly  100  years  old. 

I  remember  that  one  of  the  Sunday  schools  made  me  a 
present  of  a  nice  Sunday  school  book  and  I  kept  it  carefully  for 
many  years  but  am  not  sure  whether  I  can  find  it  yet  as  I  have 
many  books.  The  cover  was  getting  loose  when  I  remember  it 
last  but  I  still  remember  the  title  was  "Stories  From  the  Ger- 
man." 

After  we  had  a  school  house  built  at  Allen's  Grove,  when  I 
was  about  19  years  old,  we  began  having  preaching  and  Sunday 
school  in  it.  I  had  helped  build  it  and  planed  about  all  of  the 
siding  for  it  by  hand.  I  also  planed  all  the  outside  lumber  for 
my  horse  barn  that  I  built  when  I  was  about  20.  I  had  cut  trees 
and  hauled  the  logs  to  near  South  Paw  Paw  and  had  them  sawed 
into  roof  boards  and  small  timbers  to  build  the  barn  with.  The 
sawmill  there  was  run  by  about  12  horses.  But  about  all  the 
large  timbers  for  sills,  posts,  beams,  plates  and  purline  plates 
were  trees  that  I  cut  and  hewed  and  framed  mostly  alone  as  my 
two  brothers  did  most  of  the  farm  work  that  year.  The  barn  is 
26x36  feet  and  is  still  in  use  on  my  farm  and  looks  good  in  1915. 
It  has  been  shingled  and  painted  several  times.  I  had  also  cut 
and  hauled  a  number  of  logs  to  that  sawmill  two  years  before 
to  be  used  in  building  a  barn  that  Sam  and  Eri  Butler  and  Frank 
Ellsworth  built  for  us  in  1849.  After  the  sawmill  was  moved 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PIONEERS.  87 

from  South  Paw  Paw  I  hauled  quite  a  number  of  logs  to  a  saw- 
mill of  the  same  kind  at  Melugin's  Grove  to  be  sawed  into  roof 
boards  and  other  things  to  build  our  first  frame  house  and  a  cow 
barn.  The  pine  lumber  we  bought  at  different  places  but  that 
for  the  first  barns  was  bought  in  Chicago  before  the  railroads 
were  built.  The  lumber  was  all  rough  just  as  it  was  sawed  so 
that  the  carpenters  had  to  work  the  moldings  or  fancy  work  all 
by  hand  and  the  siding  was  sawed  the  same  thickness  on  both 
edges. 

I  think  old  Mr.  Warriner  and  Mr.  Sturgeon  from  South 
Paw  Paw  preached  longer  in  our  school  house  than  any  of  the 
others,  but  a  Mr.  Sedith  and  a  Mr.  Breed  of  East  Paw  Paw  each 
preached  for  us  considerably  and  so  did  Mr.  Brewer,  Mr.  Baker 
and  a  Mr.  Reack.  We  had  others  for  a  few  times. 

I  think  the  most  interesting  and  successful  donation  that  we 
had  at  our  school  house  at  Allen's  Grove  was  for  old  Mr.  War- 
riner. As  he  was  well  liked  the  people  came  quite  a  distance  and 
we  had  a  good  large  attendance.  I  took  a  lot  of  nice  apples  to 
sell  for  the  donation  and  George  Thompson  volunteered  to  sell 
them  singly  or  in  small  numbers  and  he  said  that  when  he  could 
not  find  others  that  would  buy  he  had  to  depend  on  me  to  buy 
some  to  treat  the  children.  So  he  took  in  a  lot  of  dimes  or  nickels 
for  the  apples  and  when  he  counted  what  he  had  got  for  apples 
he  said  he  might  have  got  more  if  he  had  exerted  himself;  but 
we  all  thought  he  had  exerted  himself  to  the  best  of  his  ability. 
When  they  had  counted  all  that  was  donated  they  found  they  had 
nearly  $100.  Ben  Nettleton  proposed  to  sell  tickets  to  draw  for 
a  nice  cake  that  was  not  used  for  supper  and  make  up  the  even 
hundred  dollars ;  but  old  Mr.  Warriner  was  opposed  to  anything 
like  a  lottery  so  they  made  up  the  $100  in  some  other  way. 

As  surprise  parties  were  quite  common  for  a  while  both 
before  and  after  the  Civil  War,  I  will  write  a  little  about  some  of 
them.  Someone  that  had  a  team  and  sled  or  wagon  would  get 
a  few  friends  or  perhaps  a  whole  load  of  them  and  drive  to 
friends  without  sending  any  notice  that  they  were  coming.  If 
they  were  late  in  getting  there,  sometimes  part  of  the  young  folks 
would  be  in  bed  before  the  company  arrived ;  but  they  were  gen- 
erally so  glad  to  see  their  friends  that  they  would  get  up  and 
welcome  them  and  visit  and  play  games  or  sing  for  a  few  hours. 


88  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PIONEERS. 

I  went  with  such  a  load  once  when  it  rained  soon  after  we  got 
there.  The  rain  continued  till  morning  so  that  we  did  not  start 
for  home  till  daylight  and  then  the  water  was  so  deep  in  one 
slough  we  had  to  cross  that  it  nearly  came  into  the  sleigh  box ; 
but  there  was  a  plank  bridge  in  the  middle  of  the  slough  that  was 
above  water  but  on  each  side  of  it  it  was  quite  deep  for  quite  a 
distance.  A  dog  that  had  followed  us  came  as  far  as  the  bridge 
but  did  not  dare  come  further  then ;  I  do  not  know  how  long  it 
stayed  on  the  bridge  but  it  did  not  get  home  for  a  day  or  two. 
It  belonged  to  my  hired  man  and  was  stopping  here.  At  another 
time  I  went  with  such  a  load  to  a  neighbor's  where  the  woman 
had  a  brother  visiting  that  was  home  from  the  army  on  a  fur- 
lough as  he  had  been  sick  for  some  time.  His  sister  feared  that 
it  might  make  him  worse  to  visit  with  so  many.  So  we  all  came 
back  to  my  house  and  visited  here  a  while.  At  another  time  I 
was  stopping  at  a  hotel  in  Geneva,  Illinois,  over  night,  when  such 
a  party  came  there  and  sang  and  visited  for  a  long  time.  They 
had  been  at  a  neighbor's  and  thought  they  were  not  welcome  so 
they  came  to  the  hotel  to  finish  their  visit  with  each  other;  and 
in  the  morning  the  landlord  apologized  for  having  such  a  noisy 
lot  disturbing  my  sleep,  but  I  told  him  I  enjoyed  it  as  I  was  fond 
of  hearing  singing. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

"Yankee  Bill,"— The    Old    Time    Peddler- 
Inlet  Swamp — A  Hunt  for  Goose 
and    Duck  Eggs 

I  think  Wm.  Rusk,  or  "Yankee  Bill'  as  he  was  generally 
called,  peddled  near  here  the  longest  and  was  the  best  known  and 
the  best  liked  of  any  of  the  peddlers  that  came  around  here.  I 
used  to  think  he  was  doing  a  thriving  business  as  he  used  to  drive 
a  nice  little  span  of  mules  with  a  fine  large  peddler's  wagon ;  but 
I  think  he  never  made  very  much  money.  Indeed,  I  think  he 
died  quite  poor,  but  for  many  of  his  later  years  I  think  he  did  not 
sell  or  carry  much  except  essences  that  I  think  he  mixed  or  man- 
ufactured at  home.  I  remember  when  my  niece,  Mrs.  Barringer, 
was  a  little  girl,  how  glad  she  was  when  he  came ;  she  would  run 
and  gather  eggs  for  us  to  trade  with  "Yankee  Bill"  when  she 
knew  he  was  coming.  He  was  here  once  when  some  of  the  Sun- 
day schools  had  a  big  picnic  in  my  pasture  and  he  sold  a  great 
many  packages  of  pop  corn,  nuts  or  candy  for  the  children.  Once 
he  told  me  of  being  stopped  one  night  when  he  was  sure  they 
intended  to  rob  him.  He  said  he  was  driving  after  dark  to  get 
to  his  home  in  Somonauk  when  his  mules  stopped  suddenly  and 
he  saw  a  man  holding  them  and  another  man  standing  beside  the 
wagon.  He  was  so  sure  they  intended  to  rob  him  he  did  not  wait 
for  any  words  with  them  but  jumped  off  on  the  other  side  of  hi= 
wagon  and  fired  at  the  man  who  was  holding  his  mules,  when 
both  men  ran  away.  He  then  got  on  his  wagon  and  went  home 
in  a  hurry  but  he  said  he  did  not  know  whether  he  hit  the  man 
he  fired  at  or  not  but  said  that  he  heard  that  a  man  had  called  at 
a  doctor's  office  to  have  a  wound  dressed  and  he  thought  the  man 
he  fired  at  may  have  had  a  flesh  wound. 

I  think  I  have  not  written  about  our  hunt  for  goose  and 
duck  eggs  in  the  swamp  north  of  Melugin's  grove.  I  had  heard 
they  laid  and  hatched  there  in  great  numbers  and  when  I  was 

89 


90  "YANKEE   BILL,"   INLET   SWAMP. 

nearly  grown  up  I  had  quite  a  desire  to  see  what  was  there,  so 
I  made  a  little  boat  of  a  few  boards.  But  as  father  wanted  us  to 
get  all  of  our  corn  planted  before  going  we  did  that  first  and 
then  invited  a  few  friends  to  go  with  brother  Alexander  and  me 
for  a  hunt  or  outing.  We  drove  to  the  east  edge  of  the  swamp 
and  put  the  boat  in  the  water  and  pushed  it  a  long  distance  as 
the  water  was  so  shallow  the  boat  would  rub  on  the  moss  or -turf 
in  the  bottom,  especially  if  more  than  one  were  in  the  boat.  So 
we  let  N.  C.  Allen  take  the  boat  and  Wm.  Shoudy  and  I  waded 
in  the  water  from  one  to  two  feet  deep  for  about  a  mile,  but  we 
found  such  a  number  of  drifts  of  rushes  and  other  stuff  that 
grows  in  swamps,  that  we  could  walk  easily.  Some  were  ten  or 
fifteen  rods  long  and  three  or  four  rods  wide;  but  I  never  knew 
what  caused  such  drifts  unless  it  was  the  ice  and  high  water  that 
had  pulled  up  the  rushes  and  other  stuff  and  then  the  wind  may 
have  blown  them  into  drifts.  The  part  of  the  drifts  that  was 
above  water  burned  fiercely  and  we  burned  a  number  of  them 
and  when  Wm.  Shoudy  and  I  had  gone  into  the  swamp  as  far 
as  we  dared  to  go  we  saw  that  by  going  about  half  a  mile  south 
we  could  have  green  grass  to  walk  on  around  to  where  we  had 
left  the  team  and  smaller  boys  that  had  come  with  us ;  so  Shoudy 
and  I  decided  to  walk  around  on  the  green  grass  as  we  had 
burned  about  all  of  the  drifts  we  had  walked  on.  We  had  to 
wade  in  the  water  about  all  the  way  if  we  went  straight  toward 
our  team.  But  when  we  got  on  the  green  grass  we  found  the 
ground  was  not  solid  but  would  settle  and  shake  when  we  walked 
on  it  and  we  feared  there  was  water  under  it  and  that  we  might 
break  through  the  turf  on  top.  I  have  read  about  such  places  in 
other  places.  I  think  that  Shoudy  was  more  afraid  than  I  was  as 
he  would  only  walk  behind  me  and  when  I  said  to  him  we  would 
have  some  experience  to  tell  the  boys  when  we  got  to  the  wagon 
if  we  had  not  found  any  geese  or  ducks'  eggs.  He  said,  "If  we 
ever  do  get  there."  But  we  did  find  one  crane's  nest  on  a  musk- 
rat's  mound  but  the  eggs  were  rotten.  When  Allen  got  back  with 
the  boat  he  said  he  thought  he  had  gone  about  three  miles  into 
the  swamp  and  that  the  water  kept  getting  a  little  deeper  the 
further  he  went  and  that  he  saw  lots  of  young  ducks  and  geese 
but  that  they  could  swim  so  well  he  could  not  catch  any  of  them. 
We  saw  a  large  flock  of  cranes  near  where  we  left  the  wagon 


"YANKEE   BILL,"   INLET   SWAMP.  91 

when  we  first  came  near  there,  but  none  of  us  saw  any  old  ducks 
or  geese  or  any  of  their  old  nests  and  we  wondered  where  those 
that  Allen  saw  had  hatched  out.  We  saw  no  signs  of  old  nests 
on  the  drifts  of  rushes.  But  perhaps  there  may  have  been  stil! 
larger  or  higher  drifts  further  into  the  swamp  where  they  may 
have  hatched  out.  But  I  think  that  none  of  us  cared  to  investi- 
gate any  further  and  never  tried  it  again.  I  think  that  about 
the  whole  of  that  swamp  is  drained  and  farmed  now  but  much  of 
it  is  sometimes  flooded  or  covered  with  water  at  times. 

I  shot  a  bird  near  that  swamp  that  I  think  was  different  from 
any  I  have  ever  seen  since  or  before.  It  was  about  the  size  and 
color  of  a  bluejay  but  had  a  plume  of  a  single  feather  about  5 
inches  long  and  about  one-third  of  an  inch  wide.  I  tried  to  save 
the  plume  for  a  curiosity.  I  used  it  for  a  book  mark  for  a  while 
but  lost  it. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Father  and  Mother 

As  I  have  no  pictures  of  father  or  mother  some  would  like 
to  have  me  write  a  little  description  of  them.  I  think  that 
mother  was  a  little  above  the  average  height  of  women  but  not 
very  tall  or  fleshy.  She  perhaps  resembled  her  half  brother,  uncle 
John  Colville.  as  much  as  any  one  I  think  of.  As  she  has  been 
dead  nearly  75  years  I  cannot  remember  her  looks  very  distinctly. 
Mrs.  H.  G.  Hewlett  used  to  tell  me  that  I  looked  like  my  mother. 
Father  was  a  little  above  the  average  size  of  men,  5  feet  1 1  inches 
tall,  but  never  very  fleshy.  He  got  a  little  fleshy  in  his  late  years 
as  he  did  not  work  much  for  a  few  years  before  he  died  in  1860. 
He  used  to  read  a  great  deal  and  he  left  the  entire  care  of  the 
farm  and  stock  to  his  sons.  Brother  Robert  was  head  manager 
here  till  he  married  in  1856;  then  he  soon  built  a  house  on  his 
own  part  of  the  farm  and  moved  there  and  left  me  to  take  charge 
of  father's  farm  and  stock.  My  brother  Alexander  went  to  some 
high  schools  for  a  while  and  then  taught  school  some  before  en- 
listing in  the  Illinois  4th  Cavalry  in  1861.  Father  said  he  never 
was  weighed  in  his  life ;  but  I  think  he  would  weigh  more  than 
200  Ibs.,  especially  in  his  late  years.  I  think  he  was  a  strong  man 
and  he  said  he  sometimes  had  such  high  bins  full  of  potatoes  that 
his  hired  men  in  Scotland  would  not  shovel  in  the  top  so  he  did 
it  himself.  I  have  seen  pictures  of  old  General  Scott  that  I 
thought  looked  very  much  like  father. 


92 


Appendix. 


The  following  was  copied  from  father's  account  book  about 
the  death  of  his  uncle,  James  McNair,  who  was  killed  fighting 
for  the  Americans  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth: 

"Tears  like  the  morning  dew  should  fall  on  the  memory  of  the 
heroes.  At  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  on  the  25th  of  June  last,  fell  Lieu- 
tenant McNair  of  the  artillery,  an  officer  who  deserves  the  tears  of  his 
country.  Born  in  North  Britain,  he  came  to  America,  and  early  embarked 
in  the  cause  against  the  tyrant.  He  served  as  a  private  in  the  first  cam- 
paign at  Boston,  and  afterwards  rose  through  the  intermediate  offices 
from  a  private  to  a  lieutenant  without  the  least  solicitation  to  obtain  that 
promotion  and  without  the  interest  of  one  friend  but  what  his  merit 
gave  him.  His  captain,  in  a  letter  from  the  camp  at  White  Plains,  writes 
as  follows :  'I  cannot  help  lamenting  of  the  death  of  so  valuable  an  offi- 
cer. He  was  cool,  attentive  to  his  duty,  intrepid  and  brave,  undisturbed 
in  the  hottest  engagements,  and  commanded  with  the  firmness  and  courage 
of  a  Roman.  He  was  loved  and  esteemed  by  his  officers,  and  loved  and 
feared  by  his  soldiers.  He  had  a  warm  sense  of  duty  to  God  and  lived 
regularly  and  religiously.  He  was  humane  and  extremely  charitable.  He 
was  humble  in  spirit,  modest  in  manner,  and  steady  in  his  conduct.  He 
possessed  the  highest  sense  of  liberty  and  wished  to  establish  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  country.  He  dies  fighting  bravely  against  slavery  and 
tyranny.  Not  less  than  a  cannon  ball  separated  his  noble  soul  from  his 
body.  It  may  be  said  of  Britain  what  Solomon  said  of  Sin :  "Many  has 
she  cast  down  wounded ;  many  strong  men  hath  been  slain  by  her." ' " 


DAVID    SMITH. 


II 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


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